The National Family Preservation Network extends best wishes for a wonderful new year! We are eager to share with you NFPN’s programs and projects for 2005 and to invite your input and participation. During this year, NFPN will:

• Complete a study of the use of Intensive Family Preservation Services (IFPS) to prevent adoption disruptions. We have initial information from 10 states and will do a more in-depth study of several of these states to determine how IFPS is used with adoptive families and the outcomes.

  NFPN invites you to tell us what services your agency or organization is providing to prevent adoption disruptions.

• Explore using the North Carolina Family Assessment Scale (NCFAS) with other programs in addition to IFPS. NFPN is working with Dr. Ray Kirk and the San Mateo County Human Services Agency in California to test use of the NCFAS with families referred for substance abuse, mental health, domestic violence, unemployment, and school issues as well as child abuse and neglect. We will field-test the NCFAS in this integrated services agency and revise it as needed to serve as an effective assessment tool with diverse referrals.

  NFPN invites NCFAS users to tell us what populations you target for assessment and how the tool is working with these groups.

• Begin a prisoner re-entry program, in partnership with the National Fatherhood Initiative, to successfully reunite male prisoners (fathers) with their families. We will provide an assessment tool, curricula, training, and technical assistance to community agencies at four project sites that are working with prisoners and their families.

  NFPN invites you to share any suggestions you have regarding potential funders for this project and to let us know if your state correctional agency would be interested in serving as one of the sites.

• Develop an advanced training package on fatherhood to highlight skills and best practice in working with fathers. The training package will include a video with administrators and practitioners sharing their experiences in promoting father-friendly policies and practice and fathers sharing how they responded. Written materials in the training package will provide information on differences between fathers and mothers in communicating and parenting, specific skills that are needed to engage fathers, how to overcome obstacles, and case examples detailing how to approach resistant fathers. The training package will be available by March 1.

  NFPN invites you to let us know how your agency is engaging and involving fathers in their children’s lives.

• Revise the database for the NCFAS and NCFAS-R training packages and collect data from users to determine the effectiveness of these tools. A recent research study has provided further support for the reliability and validity of the NCFAS assessment tool and another study on the NCFAS-R tool will be completed this year. NFPN plans to improve the database for data collection at the agency level and provide a simple way of transferring these data to NFPN for further analysis and research. We are looking into developing an online method of data collection.

  NFPN invites users of the NCFAS and NCFAS-R to provide input on your needs and ideas with regard to data collection.

• Define what specific interventions and behavior change strategies are most commonly used in Intensive Family Preservation Services. Despite the numerous studies of IFPS, the specific clinical interventions have yet to be identified and quantified. NFPN has sought but not yet obtained funding for a research project. We would like to begin collecting data from IFPS programs this year.

  NFPN invites you to provide input on the clinical components of your IFPS program. NFPN also invites you to consider giving an agency or individual donation to help cover the costs of this project. All contributions made during 2005 will be earmarked for this purpose. To make a contribution to NFPN, go to http://www.nfpn.org/support/.