Families First

Within our parenting & permanency services, 159 non-identifying adoption summaries were completed by the adoption reunion registry; 820 individuals successfully completed the impact certification class, a requirement to adopt or foster; and a total of 11,000 foster and adopted Families accessed services via the Georgia center for resources and support. Our access and visitation services provided supervised visits, as well as parenting education and resources to over 160 parents. Another notable parenting & permanency program accomplishment included a complete makeover of our partners in parenting, co-parenting on-line course.

Other Families First agency accomplishments include building the Families First resiliency needs screening (ffrns) community portal which was piloted by eight of our community partners who administered and collected their own clients' resiliency data; we successfully obtained reaccreditation by coa (council on accreditation) and carf (commission on accreditation of rehabilitation facilities); and we partnered with corporations as well as several community organizations to provide over 600 backpacks to students during our 1st annual back to school bash!

As part of our behavioral health services, we conducted 2,500 counseling sessions to over 340 individuals. In addition, 89% of clients with treatment plans exhibited progress on their goals. Other behavioral health program achievements included launching a very successful First year of "recast", resiliency in communities after stress & trauma, a partnership initiative in lawrenceville ga that promotes resiliency and equity among high-risk youth and Families; we submitted our application to become a "core" tier ii community medicaid provider; and we "stomped the stigma" around mental health where over 300 westside residents participated in a mental health awareness community block party.we served 575 individuals within Families First's newest initiative the navigator care model, which aims to connect Families to both internal Families First programs as well as external community resources while helping them strengthen their resiliency utilizing the Families First resiliency needs screening (ffrns). We administered over 500 ffrns; an evidenced informed, 14 questionnaire that measures psycho-social resiliency. We saw an increase in resiliency overall by 24%; and provided navigator clients with a total of 1,665 community referrals. Furthermore, 63% of Families First's "shelter a family" permanent supportive housing program participants increased their income; 96% of "second chance home" young mothers exited our maternity group home to safe, stable housing and 98% of our teenage pregnant and parenting (tapp) program participants graduated from high school as well as delayed a subsequent unplanned pregnancy.