Martha Ryan, founder and executive director of the Homeless Prenatal Program, "is one of six finalists for Visionary of the Year, an annual recognition by The Chronicle of Bay Area leaders whose work improves the world." Her story is highlighted in an article published on SFGATE today.
Photo: Photos By Peter DaSilva / Special To The Chronicle
The San Francisco Family Treatment Court (FTC) has the great fortune to partner with Martha Ryan and the Homeless Prenatal Program to support families impacted by parental substance use disorders navigating the juvenile dependency system. FTC was implemented in 2007, and the Homeless Prenatal Program has been one of its primary partner agencies from the beginning.
We look forward to the next 12 years of strengthening families together!
This Strategic Plan provides a framework for a coordinated national strategy to enhance and expand the use of family drug courts to improve the outcomes for children and families affected by parental substance use disorders. The primary goals of the plan are to:
1) Improve the effectiveness of the existing family drug court network by assuring it operates with fidelity to the model;
2) Expand the reach of family drug courts to keep families together and reduce child maltreatment; and
3) Continue to build the evidence base about what works for family drug courts to improve outcomes for children and parents.
Developed with a diverse group of stakeholders, the Strategic Plan is pertinent to all policymakers, practitioners, researchers, foundations, and advocates committed to improving child welfare and substance use disorder treatment outcomes for children and parents.
NADCP CEO Carson Fox notes, 'Of the more than 400,000 children in foster care, the majority are there because of a parent or caregiver who is in need of treatment for alcohol or drugs. This plan lays out a pathway to ensure all children and families have access to effective, evidenced-based services that are proven to improve child welfare outcomes. It advances justice for children and families affected by substance use disorders in a way that the field has never done before.'" Download the Strategic Plan here.
On Friday, May 13, the Honorable Kathleen Kelly announced that the San Francisco Dependency Drug Court has a new name: San Francisco Family Treatment Court
In a message to judges, court staff, and collaborative partners, Judge Kelly stated:
"The new name reflects not only best practices in this field, but the true work of the dedicated team which provides coordinated, family focused, trauma informed care to all members of the families we serve – parents and children alike.
"We appreciate the leadership and support of [Presiding] Judge [John] Stewart and [Supervising] Judge Anne-Christine Massullo and the extraordinary dedication of the members of the San Francisco Family Treatment Court Team." The San Francisco Family Treatment Court will be honored at the Homeless Prenatal Program's annual celebration on Saturday, May 14.
PBS recently aired Tough Love, a documentary that follows two families navigating the child welfare system, one in New York and the other in Seattle. The film provides a behind-the-scenes view of the King County Family Treatment Court in Seattle, which helps parents with substance use disorders reunify with their children and resolve the issues that brought them into the child welfare system.
Film Description
Tough Love chronicles the separate journeys of Patrick Brown, a single, white father in Seattle, and Hasna "Hannah" Siddique, a newly married Bangladeshi-born mother of two in New York City, as they fight to make their families whole again after their children were taken from them due to neglect. Through intimate, vérité footage, we witness firsthand the complex bureaucracy of America's child welfare system and the powerful role that poverty and other challenges play in keeping parents and children apart.
It is conservatively estimated that more than 2 million children are in state-sponsored care worldwide. In the United States, more than 400,000 children were living without permanent families in 2013. In 2012, 78 percent of cases reported to child protective services agencies involved findings of neglect, not abuse. Although each state defines neglect differently, allegations often involve poverty, mental illness, addiction, domestic violence and/or children with significant developmental challenges. Among the thought-provoking questions Tough Love raises are these: Do parents charged with neglect deserve a second chance? Who decides? Is there more that can be done to address the factors that contribute to cases of neglect?
Tough Love does not attempt to answer these
questions, take sides or set out to show failings in the child welfare
system. It simply trains an unflinching eye on the ghosts of the foster
care system--the individuals rarely, if ever, depicted in mainstream
media--parents who love their children and are struggling to reclaim
them. Tough Love is the first documentary to be granted
yearlong access to film inside Seattle's Family Treatment Court (FTC).
Never before has the public been privy to the roundtable discussions
between social workers and lawyers in the court, and few are aware of
the multiple bureaucracies parents must manage and the services that
they and their children desperately need to improve their chances of
reunification.
We first meet 40-something single dad Patrick Brown in Seattle's FTC,
a court with innovative programs that help parents with histories of
substance abuse reunite with their children. Patrick's 4-year-old
daughter, Natalya, has been living with a loving Italian foster family
since Patrick, fearing for her life, called Child Protective Services
about the child's meth-addicted mother. After 15 months in the court
program, Patrick, a journeyman landscaper, handyman and recovering meth
addict himself, is now sober, holding down a steady job and inching
closer to being reunited with Natalya. But he slips--gambling away his
rent money and drinking a glass of wine after an emotional Fourth of
July holiday without his daughter.
Patrick's team of social workers and advocates, along with Judge
Julia Garratt, begin to question his recovery and ability to parent his
child safely. As attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous and Gamblers
Anonymous meetings is added to his list of responsibilities, the judge
considers terminating his parental rights. Patrick begins to wonder
whether he "has what it takes to be a father," or whether Natalya would
be better off being adopted by her foster family.
Meanwhile, across the country in New York City, seven-months pregnant
Hannah Siddique and her husband, Philly, are preparing for the birth of
their first child. Like any young couple, they seem happy and very much
in love. But two years earlier, Hannah's two children from a
relationship with an abusive ex-boyfriend were taken from her after the
New York City Administration for Children's Services (ACS) learned that
she had left her son and daughter with her mother for nights at a time.
Was it poor judgment or neglect? Today, Hannah says that she's trying to
move forward, but "my past is just haunting us."
Hannah admits that at the time her children were removed from her
care, "I was clueless as to what it was to be a mother." But now she is
determined to prove that she can be a responsible parent and that with
Philly, she can create a safe and loving home for her children. Philly, a
Dominican New Yorker with a sweet, upbeat nature, is with Hannah every
step of the way. He works seven days a week in a food truck and at a
tile factory, earning barely enough to make ends meet, and all he wants
is to be a good husband, father and provider.
Hannah starts to attend weekly parent support group meetings at the
Child Welfare Organizing Project (CWOP) in East Harlem. Despite her
excitement about having a baby, she is frustrated by the lack of
movement on her two-year case with ACS, through which she is seeking to
be reunited with her older children. Then, at a CWOP meeting, Hannah and
Philly learn a devastating fact: the safety of their newborn child will
also be under investigation because of the still-open case.
To make matters worse, the two also discover that living with
Philly's mother, as they do now, is a liability that increases the
chances that ACS will take their new baby. With no other options, they
apply for a spot in a family homeless shelter. In the midst of all this,
healthy baby Mia is born. After failing to qualify for the shelter,
Hannah and Philly return to his mother's house with Mia and hope for the
best.
In Seattle, we last left Patrick questioning whether he has what it
takes to be a father. But on the heels of the judge's "tough love"
approach, Patrick's FTC team jumps into action. It's clear they're
rooting for him and have come to the conclusion that his self-sabotage
is grounded in fear and anxiety. Together, with markers and whiteboards
and just the right amount of levity, they map out a plan. This time, the
scales just might tip in Patrick's favor.
Tough Love, a compassionate inside look at the child
welfare system, shows the remarkable discretion and power that judges
have in defining what makes a parent a parent--and a family a family.
Put under the microscope of child protective services, which parents
would pass the test? The film illustrates the disparity between various
state systems and bears witness to the often-overlooked and
unappreciated role that social workers, lawyers and parent advocates
play as cases drag on for years.
"I hope Tough Love gives audiences a glimpse of the
lives inside the child-welfare system, the lives of the families and
workers who spend countless hours navigating this complex bureaucracy,"
says filmmaker Stephanie Wang-Breal. "At the end of the day, it is a
system made of people. People who are faced with complex issues like
housing, welfare, domestic violence and substance abuse. People who have
to overcome unimaginable obstacles to have a family again.
"Too often, adoption is seen as the only option for children in
foster care. Through Hannah, Philly and Patrick's stories, I hope to
show audiences that these children have parents who love them and are
willing to do whatever it takes to get them home."
