Families4Change (F4C) is a nonprofit organization that seeks to reduce juvenile offenses, and problem
behaviors and truancy in school using a family-based program. Families4Change, Inc. is the provider of the Family Solutions Program (FSP) and Families and Schools Connected (FSC).
Our organization has two missions:
(1) to provide direct services to youth and families and
(2) to provide training to professionals in other communities who wish to implement the Family Solutions Program or Families and Schools Connected Program.
We provide an alternative to probation and/or school suspension through a strengths-based intervention and group social support. We also provide support to children within the school system to help bolster the family-school partnership and reduce the rate of truancy and problem behaviors among students.
The multiple-family group model allows families to work together in structured activities and facilitated discussions to improve communication skills, practice anger control techniques, foster positive parenting skills and good youth decision-making skills, strengthen advocacy for education, engage in community service and much more.
We began in Athens, Georgia in 1992 as a collaboration of the Clarke County Juvenile Court and the Department of Child and Family Development at the University of Georgia. Having demonstrated its ability to reduce recidivism rates, F4C, Inc. currently operates in Athens-Clarke County and has expanded to many counties across the state of Georgia. Additionally, F4C has expanded throughout the country by training professionals in other states. Families4Change is currently working with the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice to implement FSP in every county in the state and the Richland 2 School District in Columbia, SC which is using FSP as an alternative to suspension and expulsion.
F4C has successfully reached over 2500 youth and families. Graduates of the program have a re-offense rate of 24 percent, as compared to 43 percent for youth not attending, and 55 percent for youth placed on probation. In addition, youth who graduate from the program are 7 times less likely to re-offend when compared to first-offender youth who are placed on probation, and this higher success rate has been found for both males and females, regardless of race.
Through F4C, youth service workers, school officials and juvenile justice staff discover an effective way to change the lives of youth utilizing the family. A sense of community forms during the Family Solutions Program to validate and nurture the participants, who initially may be angry, isolated, discouraged, and confused, so that they graduate from the program confident and hopeful. The group leaders serve as facilitators of group support and problem-solving by drawing on the commitment, compassion, and insight of all the family members. By the graduation session, at the end of the program, families are looking ahead with enthusiasm about the possibilities for new opportunities and future success.
