The Creating Lasting Family Connections® Fatherhood Program: Family Reintegration (CLFCFP) is an award-winning, nationally recognized comprehensive personal and family strengthening curriculum. This curriculum increases skills that fathers or mothers (and their families) find useful in establishing or re-establishing strong family harmony, supporting single or married adult men and women who may be in recovery for substance abuse, or who may be currently incarcerated or reentering the community after a period of incarceration, military service, or any other form of physical or emotional separation.

The CLFC Fatherhood Program is a comprehensive, scientifically proven, personal and family strengthening program that has received wide national recognition. The CLFC Fatherhood Program is listed in the Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy, was listed in the National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices from 2013 through 2018, and is included in Health Canada’s Compendium of Best Practices. The CLFC Program was further recognized as a featured practice in SAMHSA’s Recovery to Practice Newsletter and was featured in the National Criminal Justice Association’s Justice Bulletin. In 2009, the Creating Lasting Family Connections® Fatherhood Program: Family Reintegration was identified as a Promising Program by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF).

The Creating Lasting Family Connections® Fatherhood Program (CLFCFP) is a personal and family strengthening experience for men or women provided in gender-specific groupings that addresses the following multiple challenging and interconnected issues: physical or emotional family separation for extended periods; any personal of family history of substance abuse (and recovery support); adverse childhood experiences; any personal safety and violence-related issues; sexual health issues including HIV and other STD prevention. The program employs a multi-faceted, strengths-based approach. The program also includes strategies to assist a parent in gaining deep insight in providing effective prevention practices for their children. This program is specifically designed to cultivate an atmosphere of inclusion, respect and cultural sensitivity for adult, at-risk, male- or female-specific audiences traditionally considered to be somewhat resistant and difficult to recruit and retain in a program of significant scope and duration.

The Creating Lasting Family Connections® Fatherhood Program Promotes Family Strengthening Skills for Fathers or Mothers (in Gender-Specific Groupings)

• CLFC promotes communication and refusal skills for resisting negative influences.
• CLFC promotes emotional awareness and expression skills so that fathers can process emotions that might have previously negatively impacted their judgment and possibly triggered unhelpful fathering practices and behaviors.
• CLFC promotes relationship and family strengthening skills so that fathers/mothers can develop a deep and wide network of positive support.
• CLFC promotes self-efficacy, and nurtures personal and family trust and openness so that fathers or mothers are more likely to reach out for help with personal and family issues, including those related to partnership and parenthood.

In two quasi-experimental research studies with comparison groups conducted by Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) and McGuire & Associates, the adapted version of CLFC also achieved statistically significant improvements in all 9 of the following targeted measures:

• Communication skills
• Conflict resolution skills
• Intrapersonal skills
• Emotional awareness skills
• Emotional expression skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Relationship management
• Relationship satisfaction
• Relationship commitment

In addition to the relationship skills listed above, the CLFC Fatherhood Program drastically reduced prison recidivism by up to 60%. These results were published in Criminal Justice Policy Review (McKiernan et al. 2013), a peer-reviewed journal, and clearly demonstrate that the Creating Lasting Family Connections® Fatherhood Program has broad and positive statistically significant and meaningful impact on parenting skills. This means fathers or mothers are better equipped to positively influence their families and children toward better health and wellbeing. Please also see the 2015 article written about our CLFC Fatherhood Program in the National Criminal Justice Association Justice Bulletin.