Age of Child: 9

The Be Strong Families’ (BSF) Parent Café Program is designed to provide a space for parents and caregivers to engage in facilitated, peer-driven discussions that foster self-reflection and strengthen protective factors for families. The program is built around the Strengthening Families Protective/Promotive Factors Framework and focuses on building connections between parents, promoting resilience, and developing strategies for addressing the challenges parents face. The Parent Café model is flexible and can be implemented in various settings, including schools, community organizations, and child welfare systems. Facilitators lead discussions, offer resources, and guide parents through topics that enhance parenting skills, create safer home environments, and support positive child outcomes.

Adlerian Play Therapy (AdPT) is a therapeutic approach designed for children ages 3-10, drawing from the principles of Alfred Adler’s Individual Psychology. This approach helps children explore their emotions, beliefs, and social dynamics through play, a natural medium for self-expression. The therapy unfolds in four phases: establishing a trusting relationship, understanding the child’s lifestyle, gaining insight into their perceptions of self and others, and guiding them toward positive goals and constructive behaviors. Through these phases, AdPT is designed to support children in developing self-esteem, social interest, and problem-solving abilities. By providing a supportive and safe environment, the approach encourages children to navigate and make sense of their feelings, fostering personal growth, and helping them develop skills to interact in socially appropriate ways. The therapy aims to empower children with a sense of belonging and significance as they learn to understand and manage their relationships and emotions more effectively.

EEG Neurofeedback is a type of biofeedback therapy (also known as EEG Biofeedback) that involves monitoring and regulating brain activity to improve cognitive function, emotional regulation, and overall well-being. It is a noninvasive therapy that helps individuals train their brain to function more efficiently. EEG Neurofeedback is based on the principle that the human brain can adapt and change, a concept known as neuroplasticity. By using technology that provides real-time visual and auditory feedback, individuals ideally learn to regulate their brain activity.

F4C is an individual clinical intervention for fathers who have used violence with their partners and/or children and may have co-occurring substance misuse. F4C addresses 9 individually focused core topics, 4 co-parent communication topics, and 5 father-child focused topics in 60-minute individual therapy sessions over 18-24 weeks. In the context of a strong working alliance developed through focus on fatherhood, F4C employs a continual emphasis on reflective functioning and emotion regulation skills. Improvement in these targets in turn leads to reduced IPV and child maltreatment. F4C motivates the father to change by continually recognizing his desire to be a better parent and facilitating his ability to reflect on the experiences of his co-parent and children and learn skills to manage his emotions to improve outcomes for his family. It offers optional coparent and child participation in some sessions of the intervention when deemed appropriate and safe by the treating therapist.

NTDC, the comprehensive no-cost curriculum, is designed to tackle separation, loss, grief, and trauma in adoption and foster care. This cutting-edge resource offers adoptive, kinship, and foster parents flexible education that aims to empower them over the course of time and at the right time. Training is provided both as a synchronous classroom-based learning experience and through asynchronous “Right-Time” online modules that are available at any time for NTDC participants to build further knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy. While this training originated from key concepts to support children with intense service needs, it is designed to be used in any out-of-home placement, including with kin or adoptive caregivers.

Note: NTDC has also adapted to address the unique needs of indigenous communities; however, this separate manualized version is not part of this program review.

The Developmental Trauma and Attachment Program (DTAP) provides a comprehensive approach for children facing the lasting effects of trauma and attachment disruption. Through a fully integrated model combining attachment-focused therapy with trauma-informed practices, DTAP is designed to address foundational needs for trust, emotional regulation, and resilience.

DTAP also prioritizes caregiver involvement, creating a context for healing that is designed to strengthen the family system and foster lasting change.

EQ2: Empowering Staff to Build Trauma-Informed Communities for Youth is a 6-module, workforce self-regulation and support program that integrates cognitive-behavioral skills, mindfulness approaches, and restorative practices including Circles to support the delivery of trauma-informed care. The program is designed to builds staff’s awareness of their triggers, build the self-regulation skills that underlie the capacity to co-regulate with youth, cultivate reparative relationships, and model self-regulation skills for youth. The program also increases staff knowledge of trauma, including its impact on brain structure, behavior, and the brain’s neurobiological capacity to heal through relationships with regulated adults. The content of EQ2 is primarily disseminated and processed through restorative-based Circles which reduce the hierarchical structure implicit in most trainings, amplify the transmission of relational knowledge that many direct care staff possess, increase feelings of belongingness, and provide an opportunity for staff’s experiences to be acknowledged and validated, thereby reducing the impact of secondary traumatic stress, burnout, and turnover. Mindfulness training builds staff’s capacity to identify triggers earlier in the stress-response cycle, while also building distress tolerance and acceptance skills shown to be associated with trauma-responsive behaviors.

The 4 Rs and 2 Ss for Strengthening Families Program is a program where families who have children with behavioral difficulties can participate in a group treatment to help improve family communication, family relationships, and satisfaction with services. Participating families have a child between 7-11 years old with behavioral difficulties and at least one primary caregiver who will participate in the group with the child.

The group topics focus on Rules, Relationships, Respectful Communication, and Responsibilities (4 Rs) and Stress and Social Support (2 Ss). Each session follows a similar format and focuses on the R or S of the day. There are discussions and activities to help caregivers, and their child learn how to use each R or S. Each week, there is also “Roadwork” (i.e., some activities to try at home).

The 4 Rs and 2 Ss has been adapted to be used with individual families, but that version has not been reviewed by the CEBC.

YouROK, Helping Foster Youth Successfully Transition to Adulthood is designed to empower foster youth by teaching emotional resilience. At its core is K’Bro, a mobile app developed with youth and for youth. It offers a secure, supportive space where they can openly share challenges. Through engaging, gamified activities, K’Bro cultivates Emotional Awareness, Self-Determination, Self-Advocacy, and Self-Esteem, equipping young people with the tools they need for better coping and emotional self-management. Beyond individual growth, K’Bro fosters a community where users can uplift each other with anonymous peer support.

K’Bro’s algorithms analyze in-app activity to identify early signs of distress, enabling early interventions that can prevent crises. Supporting this proactive approach, the YouROK Enterprise Dashboard and Parent Portal provide social workers and caregivers with actionable insights to reach at-risk youth sooner, preventing more severe, costly conditions and ensuring those who need higher-level care receive it promptly.

BrightLife Kids — a CalHOPE program by Brightline — supports the behavioral health of every family living in California with kids ages 0–12 at no cost. No insurance or referrals are required to access this resource.

BrightLife Kids offers:

• Personalized coaching via video sessions and secure chats
• On-demand articles and videos
• Easy access to support with bilingual (English/Spanish) coaches and live translation in 17 additional languages
• Coach Specialists that connect families who have additional needs to the right resources in their community
• Peer communities & group coaching

BrightLife Kids coaches have diverse backgrounds as well as training and experience with LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and gender-diverse populations. They help families focus on skill-building for everyday challenges by tackling anxiety, stress, sleep, disorganization, and more.

Feel free contact the program for more information (see bottom of the page).