We were honored to serve our Woven Coffee during the Human Trafficking 101 event organized by Families Free Board Member Jill Stott, the Regional Coordinator for Northeast Tennessee Council On Children and Youth. Speakers from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking presented an in-depth look at current statistics, common warning signs, and how to respond.
The opportunity to be among those who are working for the fight against trafficking was truly an inspiration for our team. #LoveRestores
It would be impossible to truly quantify the impact of one life, let alone a family, multiple families, and the members of a community. The totals you see above are something we are proud of, but they don’t take into account the connections made through group sessions, how our clients encourage those they work alongside and the people who feel inspired by the stories of the individuals and families we serve. Simply put, the effects go beyond almost six hundred families: these effects start a chain reaction that can’t be measured.
With our team’s dedication and insight into the needs of our community, we can only imagine the effects our programs will have in the coming year. Everyone at Families Free is truly humbled by the support we receive in our mission to offer assistance to those in need. Every day we see firsthand how #LoveRestores.
Families Free is happy to announce that we have been awarded the Nurturing Families of Tennessee contract from the Department of Children’s Services for the Northeast region.
Family Specialists with Families Free will be providing 16 weeks of in-home services to families in our region that are at a moderate to high risk of their children entering the state’s custody. Clients will have to be referred through the Department of Children’s Services, but we wanted our community to know we are on the front line of intervention and response. We will be going into homes to sit down and present clients with this new opportunity, and this service will provide education using the evidence-based Nurturing Parenting curriculum. The goal of this program is to increase parental capacity to reduce both admissions and length of stay in the foster care system, as well as support family restoration. Families Free will begin receiving referrals for this new program on September 15, 2017. Nurturing Families of Tennessee is made possible by our partnership with kidcentraltn.com.
As part of their “Addicted at Birth Series,” Tammy Childress of the Bristol Herald Courier dives deeper into the personal stories of those affected by addiction in our region. In the follow up to the first piece, WOVEN Coordinator Rachel Adams and Families Free Executive Director Lisa Tipton discuss how our program provides vital treatment, tools, and support for mothers who have delivered, or are at risk for delivering, a drug-exposed infant. To read the full article, and learn more about the first-hand experiences of women who have taken part in WOVEN’s three-part program, follow the link here. #LoveRestores
Writer Tammy Childress of the Bristol Herald Courier tells the story of Shawna Ramos, whose newborn son was born with NAS – neonatal abstinence syndrome.
Born exposed to the Subutex that his mother took throughout her pregnancy (as part of medical assisted treatment), Shawna’s son Ashton started receiving morphine every three to four hours to help ease the effects of withdrawal. “It’s been a wakeup call. Seeing him like this and knowing what he is going through makes me realize that I need to stop using,” Ramos said, looking at her son sleeping in her lap. “I know now that I need to even stop taking the Subutex because even though it helps me, it’s not worth this — I think seeing the pain he is in will help me to get clean.”
DCS was called when Ashton was diagnosed with NAS, and Ramos said they are handling things differently this time. “This time, the case worker that came to the hospital told me about a program in Johnson City called WOVEN,” she said. “They have support groups and other things that can help me come off drugs and stay clean. I’ve already talked to them twice, so I’m going to go there, and they can help me come off of everything.”
You can find the full article via the Bristol Herald Courier here. To learn more about our WOVEN program, please follow this link.
(photo courtesy of the Bristol Herald Courier)