Learn more about Family First Prevention Services in Colorado

Below are the nine evidence-based Family First Services on Colorado’s Approved Prevention Plan. County staff, community members, other providers, and interested parties are welcome to attend our upcoming April Child Welfare Town Halls.  The first town hall will be on April 13th and will host Multisystemic Therapy, Parents as Teachers, Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, and SafeCare services.  The second town hall will be on April 27th will host Child First, Functional Family Therapy, Fostering Healthy Futures – Preteen, Healthy Families America, and Nurse-Family Partnership.

April 13th Child Welfare Town Hall 3:00 - 4:00 pm 

Google Meet: meet.google.com/sss-nchg-aht

April 27th Child Welfare Town Hall 3:00 - 4:00 pm 

Google Meet: meet.google.com/sss-nchg-aht

Child First- Child First is a two-generation, home-based mental health intervention that serves young children and their families, helping them heal from the damaging effects of stress and trauma. The approach builds strong, nurturing caregiver-child relationships, promotes adult capacity, and connects families with needed services to increase emotional health and learning success and prevent child abuse and neglect.

Fostering Healthy Futures - Preteen FHF-P is a mentoring and skills group program for preadolescent children (ages 9-11) who have current or previous child welfare involvement. This community-based positive youth development program has demonstrated positive impacts on mental health (including trauma symptoms and suicidality), permanency, delinquency, and service utilization.

Functional Family Therapy - Functional Family Therapy (FFT) is an intervention for youth ages 11 to 18 and their families. This high-quality, strength-focused family counseling model is designed primarily for at-risk youth who have been referred by the juvenile justice, mental health, school, or child welfare systems. Services are short-term and conducted in both clinic and home settings, and can also be provided in schools, child welfare facilities, probation and parole systems, and mental health facilities.

Multisystemic Therapy - MST engages youth aged 12-17 and their families, typically in their home or other community-based setting, to mobilize their collective strengths and decrease the frequency and intensity of behaviors that put them at risk for juvenile justice or other out-of-home placement. These can include truancy, curfew violations, substance abuse, theft, aggression, running away, and not following rules or expectations at home or in school.

Healthy Families America- HFA is a childhood home visiting service that works with pregnant persons and parents of children up to age 5. It is grounded in an infant mental health framework and aims to cultivate and strengthen nurturing parent-child relationships, promote healthy childhood growth and development, and enhance family functioning by reducing risk and building protective factors.

Nurse-Family Partnership - Nurse-Family Partnership®️ (NFP) partners highly trained registered nurses with first-time pregnant people, caregivers' and their babies. The program begins in pregnancy and through a relationship-based program empowers people to transform their lives and create better futures for themselves and their babies. NFP aims to improve pregnancy outcomes, promote child health and development, and encourage economic self-sufficiency for families.

Parents as Teachers - PAT is an early childhood home visiting model designed to serve the whole family that builds strong communities, thriving families, and children who are healthy, safe, and ready to learn. PAT offers services to families from the prenatal period to children up to age 5. The PAT model is designed to achieve four primary goals: increase parent knowledge of early childhood development and improve parenting practices, provide early detection of developmental delays and health issues, prevent child abuse and neglect, and increase school readiness and success.

SafeCare - SafeCare® Colorado is an in-home parent support program for parents and caregivers with children ages five and under. Parent support providers help build on existing caregiver skills to engage in positive interactions with their children, address child health needs, and provide a safe home.

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy - PCIT is a treatment for children aged 2-7 with social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties. It is a caregiver/parent and child intervention where caregivers are coached in relationship building and structured discipline skills to help improve the parent-child relationship and child behavior.