Building Forever Families Initiative (“BFFI”) and the Department of Children and Family Services, El Monte’s office Family Bonding Initiative Section, are working together to create a culture of well-being environment to facilitate the parent-child bonding experience, focusing on building parent-child relationships through the lens of the child, and maintaining the family unit, friends and community connections.
The BFFI/DCFS partnership is planning to integrate services and resources to create a full-circle of individualized care which includes the implementation of a child-focused, family sensitive, relationship-based approach for engaging families and improving the parent-child bonding experience. Their goal is to support family reunification in cases where children have been removed from the home and integrate a prevention and intervention model that also strengthens and supports families at highest risk of entering and/or reentering the child welfare system.
Using BFFI’s evidence-based, research informed curriculum, the partnership will train and certify family coaches to facilitate positive parenting engagement practices, develop social support systems, and improve access to health education, mental health, and natural communities of support. These connections and teamwork help to carryout interventions that sustain improved family resiliency and stability.
The partnership will play a critical, and encouraging role in a family’s life to keep the family unit safely together, building resiliency, stability, and creating an environment free from fear and the continuous trauma of separation.