Introducing the Intact Family Recovery Center of Excellence
Publisher: Randi Slack
Over the course of nearly a decade, ICOY has worked with its partners to establish and pioneer a revolutionary type of intact family services that serves parents recovering from substance use challenges. This program, known as Intact Family Recovery (IFR), has helped keep families together across the state and served as a model for similar programs across the United States.
As ICOY undertook this project, it was able to position itself at the intersection of policy and practice to assist community-based providers in evaluating their work and proving the efficacy of the IFR model. Our experience as a leader in this space has empowered us to establish a new type of service delivery model: the Intact Family Recovery Center of Excellence.
The Intact Family Recovery Center of Excellence (IFR CoE) serves as a centralized hub dedicated to advancing, supporting, and scaling the IFR model—a family-centered, recovery-oriented approach that strengthens collaboration across child welfare, substance use treatment, and community-based systems. The IFR CoE is designed to promote high-quality, consistent implementation of the IFR model while helping jurisdictions improve outcomes for families impacted by substance use and child welfare involvement.
Through training, technical assistance, implementation support, and peer learning opportunities, the IFR CoE supports jurisdictions and organizations at every stage: from early exploration to full implementation and long-term sustainability. Grounded in evidence-informed practices, fidelity tools, and continuous quality improvement, the IFR CoE helps partners build capacity, align cross-system roles, and strengthen coordinated service delivery.
Our Goals
The IFR Center of Excellence will:
- Support high-fidelity implementation of the IFR model across diverse systems and communities
- Strengthen cross-system collaboration among child welfare, behavioral health, treatment, and prevention partners
- Build workforce capacity through training, coaching, and communities of practice
- Promote data-informed decision-making and continuous learning
- Enable replication and long-term sustainability of family-centered recovery models nationwide
Ideal Partners
The IFR CoE partners with organizations and systems committed to strengthening family recovery, including:
- State, county, and territorial child welfare agencies
- Behavioral health and substance use treatment providers
- Prevention organizations and regional prevention centers
- Community-based and nonprofit organizations
- Convening organizations, intermediaries, and funders focused on systems transformation
Whether you are exploring implementation, strengthening an existing program, or seeking a proven model for replication, the IFR Center of Excellence offers flexible engagement options tailored to your needs. For more information, check out our webpage.
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