What is a Child and Family Team?

Who is important in your life and your child's life? Who can your family depend on in times of crisis?

These are some of the questions asked of a child and his or her family when the Care Manager from Bergen's Promise and the Family Support Organization partner meet with the child and their family for the first time.

Those named are chosen to form a "team" – people who know the family best, to help make decisions together. Everyone at each Child and Family Team meeting, including the child, has an equal voice in making those decisions.

Once the team is chosen, the Care Manager from Bergen's Promise helps to provide the structure and organization for the initial series of Child and Family Team meetings.

The Child and Family Team meetings become an important part of the process of growth in the life of the family as well as the child or adolescent with serious behavioral and emotional challenges.

Who might be members of a Child and Family Team?

Anyone who cares about the child or adolescent

• The Care Manager from Bergen's Promise
• Family Member(s): Parent(s), Aunt, Uncle, Cousin, Grandparent, etc.
 
• A friend
• Religious affiliation
• Juvenile Justice: Probation officer, public defender
• Service Providers: Therapist, foster parent, mentor, physician, residence facility director 
• Family Support Partner from the Family Support Organization
• Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) caseworker
• Educational System: Teacher, coach counselor, mentor
• Community: Neighbor, religious community, police, mentor, employer – anyone important in the life of the child

Sometimes it just takes a family, sometimes a community and sometimes a whole county to raise a child.