Intact Family Recovery
Intact Family Recovery
Illinois Collaboration on Youth (ICOY) seeks to build a collaborative case management model that effectively partners with substance use agencies and child welfare providers to enhance the recovery of individuals, the safety of children, and stability of families.
A History of Intact Family Recovery
In 2017, Illinois Collaboration on Youth (ICOY) launched the Illinois Intact Family Recovery (IFR) program with funding from the US Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families’ fourth round of Regional Partnership Grants (RPG 4) program (Target Grants to Increase the Well-Being of, and to Improve the Permanency Outcomes for, Children Affected by Methamphetamine or Other Substance Abuse). The grants “support partnerships among child welfare agencies, substance use treatment providers, and other social service systems.” The IFR program has continued to operate in new regions of Illinois since 2017 with additional funding from RPG 6 and RPG 7.
The IFR program enhances Illinois’ Intact Family Services (IFS) program through partnerships with substance use treatment providers. The goals of the IFR program are to increase the permanency, safety, and social well-being of the child, decrease substance abuse severity of the parent, and improve the system-level capacity, communication, and collaboration among child welfare and treatment agencies.
The IFS program is an in-home, community-based program that works with families identified by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Illinois’ state child welfare administrator, as being at risk for foster care placement. The program helps families identify strengths, set goals, and modify behaviors that put their children at risk, to safely maintain the children in the home. Intact Family case managers closely monitor families and link them to counseling, parenting training, home-based services, substance use treatment, housing, employment, and other supportive services. In the IFR program, families receive Intact Family services integrated with specialized substance-use-treatment case management from Intact workers and recovery coordinators (RC) who are co-located at the IFS program and are part of the Intact team.
Advocates for Human Potential have evaluated all three rounds of the IFR program (RPG4, RPG6, and RPG7, delivered in Northern, Eastern, and the Metro East regions of Illinois, respectively). Preliminary evaluation results demonstrate:
- Decreased parental substance use
- Increased substance use treatment engagement and retention for parents
- Improved parental mental health
- Improved family stability and positive parenting practices
- Positive trends in child safety and well-being
- Positive trends in children remaining in home versus foster care
Capacity Building and Innovation in Child Welfare
ICOY serves as lead regional partnership grantee for the Illinois Intact Family Recovery (IFR) projects serving regions Northern (NIL-IFR | 2017-2022), Eastern (EIL-IFR | 2019-2024), and Metro-East of Illinois (MEIL-IFR | 2022-2027).
Intact Family Recovery (IFR) offers child welfare agencies with substance use challenges treatment and intact family support increasing the family's safety in staying together and the resources needed for parental drug abuse recovery that may have impacted the family stability. ICOY was an RPG 4 and RPG 6 grantee and the current RPG 7 project is aimed at addressing the disproportionality faced by families of color in the child welfare system in the Metro-East area of Illinois.
The IL-IFR program is an evaluation-based initiative that engages 15 local and state organizations serving 30 counties in Illinois providing co-case management support through a Recovery Coordinator, who supports the family in their recovery process, and an Intact Worker, who supports the safety and stability of children and their families.
Program Objectives
- Increase the Well-being, Permanency, and Safety of Children
- Improve Family Recovery and Stability
- Increase System-Level Capacity and Effectiveness
Goals & Results
- To display the positive impact that Intact Family Recovery services combined with Intact Family Services can provide for increased outcomes for substance-involved parents and their children.
- Recovery Coordinators are successfully referring and helping IFR clients get admitted to substance use treatment quicker and assisting parents to stay abstinent post-initial treatment.
What We Know So Far
- Participants report that the IFR program links them to needed SUD and mental health treatment, parenting classes, and other resources.
- Participants' children experience decreased disruptive behaviors.
- Parents receiving IFR show greater improvements in Safety and Permanency by:
- Decreasing problem behaviors
- Decreasing trauma and mental health symptoms
- Fewer substantiated maltreatment recurrences
- Fewer out-of-home placements
- Click here to read the final report for the Regional Partnership Grant 4 Project.
- Click here to read the final report for the Regional Partnership Grant 6 Project.
Partners in the IL-IFR Programs Include
- Advocates for Human Potential, Inc.
- Aunt Martha’s Health & Wellness
- The Baby Fold
- Bethany Christian Services
- Brightpoint
- Caritas Family Solutions
- The Center for Youth & Family Services
- Chestnut Health Systems
- Illinois Association for Behavioral Health
- Illinois Department of Children & Family Services
- Illinois Department of Substance Use Prevention & Recovery
- Lutheran Social Services of Illinois
- One Hope United
- Remedies Renewing Lives
- Stepping Stones Treatment
- Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities
This website is supported by Grant Numbers 90CU0123 & 90CU0107 from the Children's Bureau (CB), within the Administration for Children and Families, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Neither the Administration for Children and Families nor any of its components operate, control, are responsible for, or necessarily endorse this website (including, without limitation, its content, technical infrastructure, and policies, and any services or tools provided). The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Administration for Children and Families and the Children’s Bureau.
