Community of Practice Shared Vision

We believe that the severity and complexity of impact that substance use disorders are having on children and families in our community is significant and requires a coordinated continuum of care and services that include promotion, prevention, treatment and recovery.

Purpose Statement

Our Community of Practice in Chittenden and Grand Isle Counties brings together adult and children-serving agencies and organizations to improve coordination and collaboration across siloed systems and provide better support to children and families impacted by substance use disorder.

Shared Goals

1. Sustain and expand upon the interagency team, including early childhood providers, to implement policy strategies that reduce siloing of services and funding and support coordination and integration between adult substance use treatment and children’s services.

2. Implement service delivery, practice approaches, and referral pathways that include wrap around care coordination, co-location of child and family services and adult treatment, family friendly treatment and care settings, treatment plans that include goals for families, and intake forms that ask questions about children and home.

3. Promote the cross training of children’s services and substance use disorder treatment professionals to build understanding of systems, goals, approaches, and family-centered and multi-generational practice.

4. Support and fund incentives for parenting programs in the community, such as Head Start’s “Your Journey Together” and Howards Center’s “Piggyback Program” at trusted places like the Parent Child Centers and in Chittenden and Grand Isle.

5. Support Child Care Resource in their role as regional child care navigators and a door to Specialized Child Care, CIS, and child care referral specialists.

6. Promote the Strengthening Families Protective Factors framework as a shared practice.

7. Expand ASQ screening initiatives across health and childcare settings to improve early identification of at-risk families so that prevention services can be provided to promote child safety and well-being in the home.

8. Build community and family trust in the DCF system by providing and incentivizing family centered learning opportunities through the Family Treatment Court for families with children in DCF custody.

9. Gather authentic feedback to capture the true needs and voices of families currently connected to SUD services in our community.

Key Partner Action Steps

Support the continuation and expansion of Chittenden Clinic’s Piggyback Project and re-opening the virtual parenting programs & playgroups. Build upon offerings with flexible check ins with families, which will assist in creating a more family centered approach.

Continue to develop Child Care Resource (CCR) Direct referral pathway - partners will gain understanding of the resource and utilize this as a direct pathway to childcare, CIS/early intervention, Specialized Child Care, Child Care Subsidy, etc. CCR will implement a referral tracking system to report back to the Network.

Assist Champlain Valley Head Start in promoting and expanding their new family education component that is open to all families in the community. They launched 2 virtual groups in May 2020 and are using the “Your Journey Together” curriculum, developed by the Devereux Center for Resilient Children. They will be partnering with the Janet S. Munt Family Room and The Turning Point Center in the future to build groups and co-facilitate sessions.

Support the work of KidSafe & CHARM in regards to the goals of the Family Treatment Court pilot. The priority is to offer families immediate access to treatment and team support through a collaborative court-based process with frequent and individualized judicial oversight and team accountability. Our project will create a bridge to the community and a referral pathway to SUD projects while helping to address the basic needs of the families.

Community Engagement and Network Development

Development of a Network of Communication to ensure partners and stakeholders continue to work together, develop new strategies, align efforts, and know how to get updates and be involved in the project. This project also supports outreach and the development of materials to bring new partners to the table, and supports the alignment of existing community partnerships (including law enforcement, medical providers, community members, businesses, etc.)