SAFY of Northern Colorado helps caregivers support children healing from trauma

Since 2014, Specialized Alternatives for Families and Youth of Northern Colorado (SAFY of CO) has been guided by the understanding that children do better embedded in a family and that families are the foundation of strong communities.

Today SAFY of Northern Colorado provides Treatment Foster Care (TFC) services and family preservation and reunification services to help families rebuild by providing support services to help them heal from trauma and thrive.

TFC services help provide a stable home environment for youth so they can achieve their full potential. The program's goal is to return each child to safety and permanency either with their family of origin or an adoptive family.

The In-home Family Preservation program helps family members build lifelong skills and resilience to achieve physical, social, and emotional well-being.  Services range from parenting education to intervention which resolves problems that threaten the stability of the family structure.

The organization was awarded BHS Impact Fund grant funding to partner with Raise the Future and offer caregivers free access to training in Trust Based Relational Intervention® (TBRI) which develops skills to support the behavioral health needs of children in their care.

TBRI is designed to support healing from the impacts of trauma and is an integral step in improving children’s behaviors, leading to better relationships, increased stability, enhanced educational engagement, and improved life-long outcomes.

This valuable training was offered to caregivers and professionals, virtually and in person, to help them gain a deeper understanding of trauma and how to interact with youth who have experienced trauma.

Program participants indicated that the training increases their skill level and ability to support families who parent youth with behavioral challenges by offering parents and caregivers effective parenting tactics and tools.

“TBRI has given us the tools and confidence to continue treatment-level foster care into our fifth year. Practical advice, real foster-world application, and reframed mindsets have increased our ability to successfully parent our kids from hard places.” - Foster Parent, Larimer County

To learn more about SAFY of Northern Colorado, visit:  safy.org/colorado