Child and Family Team (CFT) Meeting Facilitation Program

About the Program

Category: Children and Youth (Best in Category)

Year: 2020

The Child and Family Team (CFT) Meeting Facilitation Program is a shared contract between the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency’s Child Welfare Services (CWS), Behavioral Health Services (BHS) and San Diego County Probation Department (Probation). The program’s primary purpose is to engage children and youth up to 21 years of age, caregivers, service providers, community partners — and other identified natural supports such as family, friends and neighbors — to develop teams to create plans to help families meet their mental health treatment, CWS and Probation goals. CFT meetings are convened at integral timepoints throughout the life of a case. The CFT program promotes system collaboration, building culturally relevant and trauma-informed systems of supports and services responsive to families’ strengths and underlying needs. Over 98% of CFT meetings included at least two informal supports for the family and youth, representing the success that the team process has had in identifying supports that can be leveraged as the family increases their level of self-sufficiency and gradually transitions away from their service provider supports. Since its inception in September of 2018 through 2019, the CFT Meeting Facilitation Program has facilitated 4,590 Child and Family Team meetings for youth involved with BHS, CWS, and/or Probation.