The Executive Director's Message  The child welfare system will change more in the next five years than it did in the last five. Under the leadership of Director Brandon Nichols, the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is pursuing a long-term vision to have less reliance on the child welfare system. For […]

The Executive Director's Message  Everything we do as humans centers around relationships. Yet these are becoming more difficult to establish and maintain amid rising use of technology and the after-effects of the Covid lockdown. In these times, we must continually learn and relearn how to build healthy relationships. It is key to strengthening, supporting, healing, […]

I begin my story by explaining that my ultimate career goal was to become a teacher to help bring out the best in children so that they could achieve their destinies in passionate and empowering ways. What I learned in my five years of teaching is that a teacher wears many hats – educator, cheerleader, […]

Grant from The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation supports on-going training, development and certification of family coaches whose primary focus is to engage, enrich and build strong parent-child relationships and family bonding experiences in cases where children have been removed from the home and are working towards reunification. With the foundation's support, BFFI is able to increase the number of […]

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.  […]

Over time, the bond between the parent and child gives the child an inner sense of security, happiness and self-love. As a result, the child can go through life feeling safe, forming satisfying relationships, and succeeding in his or her goals.  If a child suddenly loses a parent, either through death, abandonment, or a prolonged […]

My most rewarding experiences and motivations in my life is bringing people of different ages, backgrounds, talents and skills together for the benefit of improving the lives of children and families.   My purpose is to work together to help create an environment that is safe, stable, nurturing and that promotes healing on many levels. An […]

BFFI continues the work launched in 2019 to provide coaching support for family reunification in cases where children have been removed from the home. In addition, BFFI expands its evidence-based practices to promote a Safe and Together¹ method for keeping the children safely with the domestic violence surviving parent. This method requires strong collaboration with Los Angeles […]

APU Graduate Students Connect with Domestic Violence Survivors Family coaches focus on serving domestic violence survivors whose children are at imminent risk of foster care entry as well as families hardest hit by COVID-19. Using BFFI’s prevention and intervention coaching model, the family coaches strengthen families by creating a safety net which includes providing parenting […]

BFFI and the House of Ruth will work together to provide a Safe and Together model for improving children’s outcomes. The goal is improving overall safety, eliminating child maltreatment, preventing the trauma of separation and children’s entry into foster care, and mitigating risk concerns posed by the batters.  BFFI and the House of Ruth believe that it […]

My Dear Son, Gabriel, I know that I hurt you in so many ways. I was in a very dark place but I wasn’t aware of it at the time. I was looking for someone to love me and above all someone who would give me attention. I would have settled for any level of […]

BFFI is committed to respect, protect and fulfill the rights of families to services, care and support, and to ensure that the families we work with have accurate information and access to health, education and natural communities of support.