Building on and loosely based on the successful Strong Starts Court Initiative, the Families First Court Initiative responds to the unique developmental needs of court-involved adolescents.
In 2021, the Families First Court Initiative launched in Dutchess County to address the needs of youth ages 12-18 — and to reduce the reliance on congregate care — by bringing expertise in adolescent mental health into the court process, preparing the community to achieve goals aligned with the Family First legislation, and prevent further system involvement. Research shows that children who spend prolonged lengths of time in congregate care have worse outcomes than their counterparts who are placed in home-based care, including poor educational outcomes, greater risk of system involvement and more likely to experience further trauma or abuse. In response to these gaps, the Center launched the Families First pilot in Dutchess county, whose child welfare community was already collaborating to reduce the use of congregate care and was eager to collaborate with the Center to enhance their efforts. Families First was able to establish a productive partnership with Probation as well to reduce the use of detention and bring a trauma-informed approach to supervision and prevention.
The primary intervention of Families First is the full-time presence in the Family Court of an adolescent mental health specialist who works with the youth, any family members or other caregivers, all members of the court team, clinical providers, and other service providers to collaborate and work through any relevant barriers. Beyond their work with dedicated Families First cases, the adolescent mental health specialist works to respond to questions and problems posed by Family Court judges, attorneys, and case planners in their other cases to promote developmentally-informed and trauma responsive practices for court-involved youth.
