Intact Family Recovery Center of Excellence
What is 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. 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.
What is the Intact Family Recovery Center of Excellence?
The Intact Family Recovery Center of Excellence offers an innovative, collaborative approach to helping families affected by substance use disorders within the child welfare system. Our model brings together treatment providers and child welfare professionals through a co-located case management approach, ensuring families receive comprehensive, wraparound services that support both parents and children.
By focusing on the entire family unit, this model promotes healing, stability, and long-term success. Implemented across several regions in Illinois, it has proven effective in keeping families safely together while improving mental health, family stability, and child well-being. Through the Center of Excellence, the goal is to empower institutions, organizations, and agencies to replicate this proven model—one that enhances cross-system collaboration, builds professional capacity, and ensures that families can remain safely together while receiving compassionate, coordinated care from knowledgeable professionals.
Why Work with Us
Intact Family Recovery (IFR) is a collaborative model that brings together child welfare and addiction treatment to help keep children safe and families together. When a parent has a substance use disorder and an open child welfare case, a recovery coordinator—an addiction treatment specialist—is embedded within the child welfare agency. The recovery coordinator and caseworker partner to assess needs, engage parents in treatment, and support the whole family. A convening organization helps connect the two systems, leading training, ensuring open communication, and supporting program fidelity.
Together, this approach strengthens family recovery and reduces the need for out-of-home placement.
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Contact Us
Have questions or comments about the Intact Family Recovery Center of Excellence? Want to talk to our team? Email ifr_coe@icoyouth.org and we'll get back to you!












