COPES’ New Evidence-Based “Fatherhood” Program Now Listed on NREPP: Can Save Taxpayers Millions
Louisville, KY (PRWEB) September 10, 2013 -- A new Fatherhood Program for prison reentry, substance abuse recovery and returning military populations has been developed by the Louisville-based Council on Prevention and Education: Substances, Inc. (COPES) is now listed on the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP). This new “Fatherhood” program can save millions for taxpayers.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s NREPP represents a key part of the federal government’s efforts to help states and communities make informed decisions about selecting and using evidence-based interventions for the prevention and/or treatment of mental health and substance use disorders.
Ted N. Strader, Executive Director of COPES has developed a curriculum series to address substance abuse and mental health issues entitled, Creating Lasting Family Connections® (CLFC). The Original CLFC Program has been listed on NREPP since 2007. In July of this year, the CLFC Marriage Enhancement Program (for married and/or committed couples) was also listed. Now, the most recent CLFC program listed on NREPP is the CLFC Fatherhood Program: Family Reintegration. This new CLFC component has demonstrated powerful results for fathers, men in fatherlike roles (e.g., mentors), and men who are planning to be fathers. Each of Strader’s 3 separate programs in the CLFC Curriculum Series listed above have demonstrated powerful, positive results leading to three separate CLFC Program listings on NREPP. These three programs represent a professional lifetime of dedication and accomplishment towards improving individual, family and community life.
The CLFC Fatherhood Program was developed to help individuals who are experiencing or are at risk for family dissonance resulting from the individual's physical and/or emotional separation (e.g., incarceration, substance abuse, military service). The program has been shown to increase nine different relationship skills (communication, interpersonal, intrapersonal, conflict resolution, emotional awareness, emotional expression, relationship satisfaction, relationship commitment and relationship management), increase spirituality, reduce intention to binge drink or use drugs, and reduce prison recidivism by 60% according to a recent article published in Criminal Justice Policy Review (McKiernan, Shamblen, Collins, Strader & Kokoski, 2012). These results from this and other studies were then used for the NREPP quality of research review leading to listing on NREPP. The CLFC Fatherhood Program received a perfect score of 4.0 on NREPP’s 4.0 rating scale for the availability of implementation and training materials to support any community’s local adoption of this program in routine service settings.
The CLFC Fatherhood Program has also been recognized for its ability to save taxpayers money. The federal government commissioned a private firm, Saint Wall Street, to examine and assess the CLFC Fatherhood Program’s published results and to determine the program’s return on investment values. Their report suggests that this program can reduce governmental and societal costs by up to $14 million per year when implemented with significant numbers of individuals reentering the community from prisons by using materials and training developed by COPES. You can find out more about the program’s return on investment http://copes.org/brochures.php.
The CLFC Fatherhood Program was first implemented and evaluated with men reentering the Louisville community from prisons in the Kentucky Department of Corrections. The Louisville Metro Department of Corrections has recently embarked on a pilot-test implementation of the CLFC Fatherhood Program. Metro Corrections has scheduled a CLFC Fatherhood Program graduation ceremony for September 11th (members of the press will be invited). According to Director Mark Bolton, “The COPES CLFC Fatherhood Program has been extremely well-received by both inmates and corrections staff. Everyone is excited about the potential for a department-wide roll out in the future.”
COPES, Director Bolton and the Mayor’s Office are examining a variety of ways to implement the COPES Curriculum Series in order to achieve positive results and experience the projected savings in lives and dollars in Metro Louisville.
ABOUT COPES, Inc.:
COPES, Inc. began as a tentative and pioneering program in Louisville in the 1980’s, but has evolved into a nationally recognized and innovative substance abuse prevention and family strengthening non-profit organization. COPES was incorporated in 1981 and, by 1985, was receiving a steady flow of requests to develop programs for special populations. COPES programs are now in use in all 50 states and several other countries. Find out more about COPES at http://www.copes.org.
ABOUT TED N. STRADER:
Strader has served as Executive Director of COPES, Inc. since the agency was incorporated. He has extensive professional training in chemical dependency treatment, prevention and family relations. Strader also is the lead author/program developer for the entire CLFC Curriculum Series, which is used in all 50 states and several other countries and has been listed on NREPP since its inception in 2007. His programs have also received the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention/National Prevention Network’s Exemplary Program Award four times (1995, 1999, 2000 and 2010.) Find out more about Mr. Strader at http://www.copes.org.
You can find out more about NREPP at http://www.nrepp.samhsa.gov. The CLFC Fatherhood Program’s listing on NREPP can be found at http://www.nrepp.samhsa.gov/ViewIntervention.aspx?id=324. A brochure detailing the entire CLFC Curriculum Series can be found at http://copes.org/brochures.php. Read a related newsletter article from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) written by the CLFC developer about how to combine prevention, early intervention and long-term treatment for a holistic approach to healthcare at http://www.dsgonline.com/rtp/enews/2013/2013_07_25/enews_2013_07_25.html.
Executive Director (Ted N. Strader) Social Media Links
http://www.linkedin.com/in/tnstrader
https://twitter.com/tnstrader
https://www.facebook.com/tnstrader
Ted Strader, COPES, Inc., http://www.copes.org, +1 (502) 583-6820, [email protected]
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