Voinovich School partnership in statewide Children of Incarcerated Parents project recognized in new article

A recent article in the Richland Source,“UMADAOP’s CLFC program cultivates, strengthens healthy family bonds,” identifies Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs as a partner in evaluating the Creating Lasting Family Connections® (CLFC) program offered by the Federation of Urban Minority Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Outreach Programs (UMADAOP).

As partners in Ohio’s Children of Incarcerated Parents (CIP) Initiative, the Voinovich School Programmatic Partnership for Community-Based Prevention worked with the UMADAOPs and Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OhioMHAS) Office of Prevention and Wellness to provide training, technical assistance, and evaluation support for service providers working with families where one or more parents have experienced criminal justice involvement. By building capacity among agencies and organizations implementing the CLFC program, they helped to build the infrastructure necessary for coalitions, faith-based organizations and service providers working in the correctional, criminal justice, court and reentry systems to embed evidence-based programming into their current service systems.

The CLFC Curriculum Series was rolled out statewide at the end of 2015 as a training grant by officials from OhioMHAS, as the focal point of their CIP Initiative. This program aims to increase personal and family strengthening skills among offenders and restored citizens to support a successful transition back to family and community. The CIP Initiative was expanded in 2017 with funding from the 21st Century CURES Act to include capacity building and funding for implementation. The initiative continues today with a full complement of services to facilitate the implementation of CLFC inside Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Institutions and also in community settings throughout the state.

Research associate Holly Craycraft leads the evaluation of CLFC as part of the Voinovich School’s Programmatic Partnership for Community Based Prevention, which is directed by Dr. Holly Raffle. The School is collaborating with the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation and SheRay’s and Associates to provide support for the CIP Initiative.

“I am extremely proud of the continued expansion of the CIP Initiative throughout the state. We collaborate with an amazing group of partners, and being part of a project that is positively impacting the lives of restored citizens is both rewarding and inspirational,” Craycraft said.

To read the full article, visit richlandsource.com