Family Focused Treatment Association - FFTA

09/02/2025

is excited to welcome its newest member - Eckerd Connects - Kansas.

Eckerd Connects empowers individuals to overcome barriers, realize their potential, and build successful lives and careers. Through programs in workforce development, Job Corps training, and family support, Eckerd Connects provides individuals with the tools and support they need to thrive.

Learn more here: https://eckerd.org.

08/28/2025

Can you believe it has already been a month since the 39th Annual FFTA Conference? We are still reliving meaningful moments, and we want you to take a trip down memory lane with us!

Here is our official 2025 conference album, where attendees captured special moments and uploaded them to our Whova platform. Now you can see their New Orleans experience through their eyes!

WE CAN'T WAIT to do this with you again in Chicago for 2026. Mark your calendars for July 7 - 10!

08/18/2025

By placing children with kinship caregivers, we are able to increase permanency and placement stability outcomes. Join us for three opportunities as we and the share tools, resources, stories, and more. Members check your inbox to learn more and register! Webinar dates can be found below!

🗓️ Understanding and Supporting the Complex Role of Kinship Caregivers: A Conversation with People with Lived Experience, September 17th @6:30PM EST
🗓️ The Importance of Maintaining Contact with Kin, Culture and Community for Youth in Foster Care, September 24th EST
🗓️ Family at the Table: Kinship Search and Engagement, November 19th EST

08/05/2025

Join for our next virtual in our 2025 Advancing Policy and Practice series featuring David Simmons, the Director of Government Affairs and Advocacy at the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA). Members check your inbox to register!

Celebrate the 46th anniversary of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) with a transformative conversation led by David Simmons, Director of Government Affairs and Advocacy at the National Indian Child Welfare Association. This webinar introduces ICWA 2050, a visionary 25-year strategy to strengthen ICWA and tribal child welfare systems.

ICWA 2050 represents a holistic, intergenerational approach to:
- Expanding tribal child welfare capacity to care for Native children within their communities.
- Strengthening tribal-state partnerships to improve child welfare outcomes.
- Enhancing tribal-federal collaborations to uphold tribal sovereignty and child well-being.
- Communicating ICWA’s significance as the gold standard for child welfare policy.

Join us to explore this unifying vision, guided by tribal leadership and expertise, and discover how we can collectively work across sectors to protect Native children and their communities for generations to come.

07/31/2025

We are excited to announce our new Manager of Membership Experience, Leslie White.

Leslie brings more than a decade of experience in consultative sales, membership engagement, client relations, and community-building. Her background spans both the public and private sectors, with a strong focus on organizations that support children and families. She has a proven ability to help members uncover the full value of their partnerships, strengthen engagement, and deliver personalized and meaningful experiences.

Leslie believes that strong relationships, built on trust, empathy, and a deep understanding of each member’s goals, are key to lasting impact. She is committed to ensuring that every member of FFTA feels seen, supported, and connected, and that their experience reflects the critical, mission-driven work they do every day.

A proud West Virginian, Leslie is a passionate community advocate and dedicated to reducing barriers to rural family support and prevention services. She is excited to support and help strengthen our community of professionals serving children and families.

Leslie joined the FFTA Team the week of our Annual Conference in New Orleans, and some of you had the pleasure of connecting with her in-person. Please join us in giving Leslie an official warm welcome.

07/30/2025

As an update to FFTA's continued leadership role in the National Child Welfare Liability Insurance Working Group. Today, that Group released a report entitled Insuring Care: How Liability Insurance Access Threatens Community Services for Children.

Insuring Care - Informing Solutions to the Liability Insurance Crisis
There is a liability insurance crisis impacting child and family-serving organizations and the communities they serve.

A new landing page is now available, including access to a just-released report entitled Insuring Care: How Liability Insurance Access Threatens Community Services for Children. The initial report reveals that the crisis in liability insurance for child welfare providers is widespread, severe, and threatens the viability of services for vulnerable children and families.

The Insuring Care landing page is a growing resource that will continue to be updated with briefs, tools, and other materials to inform advocacy and solutions. You will also find ways to engage, including connecting with a working group of national and state leaders committed to taking collective and coordinated federal action to address the urgent challenge.

Regulators, public agency leaders, lawmakers, and community-based providers, in partnership with youth and families, should work together to identify strategies that will ensure accountability for wrongdoers while allowing effective child and family-serving organizations to remain viable and available to families and communities in need.

Check out the landing page now to download the report and learn more!

Insuring Care National Report:

ACRC is part of conversations with our policy makers, helping them to understand the complex needs of children and families and your role in their wellbeing.

07/28/2025

FFTA continues to play a leadership role in the National Child Welfare Liability Insurance Working Group. In response to a request we sent on May 14th, more than 65 FFTA member organizations completed the national survey. Regardless of whether your organization completed the survey, as a valued member of the FFTA Community, you are invited to the webinar on July 30th to learn more about the results! You can register and learn more below:

REGISTER FOR THE WEDNESDAY, JULY 30TH WEBINAR, 12PM - 1PM CT
https://members.togetherthevoice.org/event-6265596/Registration

Various kinds of insurance are costing more for individuals and organizations across sectors, but child welfare providers across the United States are facing urgent challenges accessing adequate and affordable liability insurance, putting the availability of the continuum of child and family services and supports at risk. The National Organization of State Associations for Children (NOSAC) and the Association of Children's Residential & Community Services (ACRC), in partnership with multiple state associations and national partners, recently completed a survey to better understand the size and scope of the problem nationwide and the disruption that this challenge presents to effective public-private partnerships that support child and family well-being. Join us for the release of this report, which shares initial findings from a survey of 327 organizations across 46 states revealing that:
- providers across the country are paying higher premiums for lesser coverage–or are unable to obtain coverage at all;
- longstanding, high-quality providers with no claims against them are being impacted because the insurance marketplace is changing;
-insurance challenges will impact the availability of a diverse array of child welfare-related services, including family preservation services, foster family care, kinship homes, respite care, counseling services, and more;
- there is a collective call for legislative reform, shared risk models, and recalibration of insurance requirements to reflect what is feasible and fair in the current market environment.

07/24/2025

The FFTA 39th Annual Conference was designed to encourage participation and foster authentic exchange across roles, sectors, and experiences. Please always remember each of you has a voice that is heard and a seat at the table here. Your work inspires us each day, and that inspiration will always be lifted up.

Thank you for taking the time to attend, contribute, and connect. On behalf of the small but mighty team at FFTA, we thoroughly enjoyed engaging with you and seeing the rooms filled with excitement, rich peer-to-peer dialogue, and collective change.

We hope you will join us again next year for the 40th Annual FFTA Conference in Chicago! Pre-Registration is available: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/6FNQP85!

07/23/2025

We can't officially end the day without giving a HUGE THANK YOU to all of our 39th Annual Sponsors! With the support of our sponsors, we were able to provide content from the that addressed today’s challenges, shaped tomorrow’s solutions, and supported positive change for children and families.

Join us in celebrating all FFTA Conference Sponsors who partnered with us this year in New Orleans: Casey Family Programs, Omni Family of Services, KVC Health Systems, Pressley Ridge, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Social Current, The Bair Foundation Child & Family Ministries, National Youth Advocate Program, Inc., Sevita, DePaul Community Resources, The Villages - Foster Care, Adoption, & Family Services, Anu Family Services, Nexus Family Healing, Cornerstones of Care, OneDigital, RISE Services, Inc., Arrow Child & Family Ministries, Kinnect, QI Innovations, LLC, St. Jude's Ranch for Children!

07/23/2025

In spirit of the conference theme, we hope you have had the opportunity to ENERGIZE your leadership with dialogue, inspiration, and connection, ELEVATE your knowledge through leading edge topics, insights, and proven strategies and ENGAGE your work as you seek to drive lasting change!

Bridget Kucharski, who works for the Omni Family Institute and leads the Michigan FFTA State Chapter definitely embraced the theme through her experience!

**Omni Family of Services (formerly Omni Visions) served as a PREMIER Sponsor for the conference, had an exhibit booth, brought 20 attendees, facilitated 3 workshops, set up a pretty cool lounge experience, and launched their new Together Facing the Challenge App. What we love most about partnership is being able to create a collaborative environment that reflects innovation, community, impact, inspiration and support!

07/23/2025

Immediately following our General Luncheon, we partnered with two incredible local nonprofits: Grace at the Greenlight and Covenant House New Orleans. Together, we sorted clothing donations for job seekers and families, prepped meals for individuals experiencing homelessness, and assembled hygiene kits to support our unhoused neighbors with dignity and care.

This event was generously sponsored by our Conference Community Service Project Sponsor, KVC Health Systems. Thank you so much KVC!

07/23/2025

From the complexities of mental health to systemic reform and the daily realities of care we have had one common theme that art, creativity, passion, and amplifying lived experience are forms of restoration. During the General Session Luncheon yesterday, we enjoyed a live painting experience by an artist, teacher, and philanthropist based in New Orleans, John Bukaty. He also delivered a powerful talk exploring how art and creativity can serve as a bridge between childhood trauma, personal struggle and community healing.

As we thought about where John's painting would live after today, we knew it needed to go somewhere meaningful so we are donating it to the Children's Community Programs Of Connecticut (CCP) in honor and memory of Brian Lynch. Brian was a longtime CEO of CCP, previously served on our Board of Directors, led in our Kinship Learning Collaborative, and was truly one of the visionaries behind the kin-first movement in our field.

Before the end of our luncheon, we also shared some news! This year, launched our first grantmaking initiative - investing in local communities and the work our members do in those communities every day through our state chapters. We awarded over $45,000 to six state chapters! These grants will build capacity, strengthen partnerships, and expand the reach of our work in local communities.