Bridges Homeward

CFCS's ultimate goal is to ensure that all children are able to live and grow within a safe, loving, nurturing family, free of abuse and neglect, if not with their birth family, then with one that will embrace them and make a permanent, life-long commitment to love and care for them. We are committed to the development of a system of care that values the integrity and strength of the family and the development of the capacity for communities to support families and children who are struggling.
The youth and families we serve come from many cultural, racial, ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientations. The youth have often experienced varying life stressors such as trauma, substance abuse, physical abuse, behavioral health issues, developmental disabilities, educational difficulties, violence and neglect. Many of their families have struggled with a range of issues including substance abuse, domestic violence, mental health concerns, as well as poverty. In addition, the youth may have experienced early and/or extensive separations from their family of origin and a series of placement experiences which may include psychiatric hospitalizations, residential treatment programs, group homes or foster care.
Over the next 3-5 years, CFCS will continue to work for meaningful change by providing the services, supports and advocacy needed to help strengthen families, prevent out of home placement of children, reunite children with their families, develop alternative permanent plans through adoption, guardianship, kinship and lifelong connections, and prepare youth to successfully transition to adulthood with the necessary educational, vocational and lifelong supports. We will continue to collaborate with our families, youth, public, private and community partners, to collect data to identify what is working and what is not; to seek funding to demonstrate new and innovative approaches to service delivery and to advocate for access to the range of educational, health, legal, recreational and therapeutic services needed.

Each year CFCS provides a range of services to over 1,100 families and individuals in 95 communities in the Boston, Greater Boston and Northeast areas of the state. Our programs: Adoption, Family Support and Stabilization (FSS), Intensive Foster Care (IFC), Group Homes for Transition Age Youth (16-21), Independent Living (IL), and our Developmental Disabilities Program (DDP) are rooted in a commitment to permanence for children, adolescents, and individuals and in maximizing each individual's opportunity to grow and development.
We are committed to preventing children from being separated from their families by providing a number of support, stabilization and clinical services, such as: parenting classes, group sessions, in home services, respite services; counseling and specialized developmental services for children and adults with developmental disabilities and to provide access to other therapeutic, educational, recreational, housing and legal programs. If a youth is unable to remain with their family, we are dedicated to developing alternative permanent plans through adoption, guardianship, kinship care and identification of caring adults as lifelong connections.
CFCS has a holistic approach that recognizes the unique needs, strengths, hopes and dreams of each consumer. All CFCS services are individualized, trauma informed, strengths based, with a focus on positive youth development. At the heart of our service planning are our consumers who, as full participants in the team, guide and direct the process.
To ensure the delivery of quality services, CFCS has employed a well-trained, qualified work force. Our hiring process, job descriptions, weekly supervision, clinical consultations, training and staff evaluations focus on ensuring that our staff has the knowledge, tools and competencies to serve this population. To properly meet the needs of our consumers, our staff is culturally competent, diverse and multilingual.
Through our case management system, CFCS tracks Staff and client inputs, outputs, and outcomes, and receives input from staff and consumers to identify what is working and what is not. We utilize this system as a learning tool that helps staff understand the clinical model and the impact of their interventions. Monthly and Quarterly reports are integrated into weekly supervision and performance evaluations.
CFCS will continue to build strong stable relationships with our families and youth, our staff, our Board of Directors, our public, private and community partners. With concrete information provided by our data base, we will share information re: the strengths and challenges of the existing system of care and develop recommendations for the change.

CFCS benefits from a history of community support dating back more than 143 years. Founded in 1873 as the Avon Home, an orphanage for homeless children in Cambridge, CFCS has evolved through time and changing community needs into a vibrant network of caring families, staff, and community volunteers committed to serving children and strengthening families. CFCS continues to adapt its programs to respond to the needs of today's families and their children.
Currently we employ over 100 dedicated and caring staff with extensive clinical knowledge and language expertise. We enjoy strong working relationships with state agencies, such as the Department of Children & Families, Department of Mental Health, Department of Developmental Services, and Department of Early Education & Care; strong partnerships with fellow service providers through the Providers Council, Children's League and Cambridge Nonprofit Coalition. Our affiliations with graduate schools has expanded our capacity to provide individualized services to youth and families and to provide opportunities' in the areas of research, expert consultation, staff development, internships, and employment. Through a number of public and private funding sources, CFCS is able to maintain a stable financial footing to support our staff and clients with quality programming and to pilot new and innovative approaches.
Committed to improving outcomes for our families with the involvement of consumers, staff, board members, managers, community partners, we re-examined and updated our program logic models to include clearly defined measurable outcomes and developed a multi-pronged quality assurance system. Based on a continuous learning approach, our Quality Assurance system includes: regular review of client outcomes, an updated data information system Efforts to Outcomes (ETO), revised job descriptions based on competencies, and an inclusive review process that includes the Family Advisory Committee, the Human Rights Committee, Program Committee of the Board, and other feedback mechanisms such as client and staff satisfaction surveys and the annual evaluation of each program.
Through this process, we are able to identify what is working and what is not and to provide information to the public, private, legislative and community partners with whom we are actively involved in developing solutions to remove the systemic barriers and challenges that often prevent our families and youth from accessing needed services.

CFCS is now five years into a sustained transformation of all our service areas to focus them on permanency – ensuring that every youth exiting foster care has a safe, secure parenting relationship in their life, whether through adoption or by creating new or enhanced relationships with caring, supportive adults.
Much of the existing service delivery system is fragmented, focusing on specific problems, not on the family as a whole. Most families have needs that cross over the existing specialized programs and are often only able to receive one type of service which although helpful does not take into account the myriad of issues that need to be addressed in order to provide safe, nurturing families for children. Families and youth who are struggling often do not have access to services that will strengthen their families and prevent out of home placement of their children. Through a number of grants and private donations, CFCS has been able to develop some new and innovative approaches, especially in our Adoption program, our Family Support & Stabilization program, and our Group Homes for transition age youth.
In our Group Homes for transition age youth 16-21, with several grants we have developed a specialized life skills/permanency program to support each youth's successful transition to adulthood that includes: individual and group services in the areas of education, employment, health, housing, financial management, healthy relationships and the development of lifelong connections. We have focused heavily on developing those lifelong connections, in helping our youth maintain contact with family or other supportive adults about their personal permanency plans. In FY19 only 13% of our group home residents had such contacts. That percentage grew to 63% in FY20 and to 79% last year. We saw a similar three-year increase in the percentage of youth who participated in permanency team meetings, rising from 6% to 33% to 75%.
In our Family Support and Stabilization Program, with some private funding, we havealso invested in a bilingual multi-cultural program, in providing a new parenting group course entitled “Parenting Journey" in both English and Spanish, and in developing a Young Parents Support program for parents under 23 years of age (many of whom have themselves been in the foster care system).
We continue to work with our public, private and community partners to advocate for change and, although we have not reached our long term goal, we are slowly raising awareness of the issues and introducing new and creative solutions.