Family Empowerment Institute
To learn where the Institute will be holding trainings across the State, click here, or apply to attend the Family Empowerment Institute, by contacting us at 1-800-264-9224.
Click here to view the Empowerment Institute Testimonial Video, “Paying It Forward”.
A letter to you…
Dear Family Member, Parent/Caregiver,
Welcome to the Family Empowerment Institute and congratulations for making an investment in YOU as a systems change leader!
The G.E.A.R. Parent Network Family Empowerment Institute has been designed to provide training with a continuum of support to parent and family members of children with behavioral health concerns to develop skills needed for effective and sustainable involvement in all aspects of the care of our children. The Institute’s design is to promote active family voice via the family driven care principle of systems of care. This strategy is based on a What, Why, Where and How model developed by the staff of the G.E.A.R. Parent Network.
All too many families/parents risk the success of needed systems change due to insufficient knowledge and understanding about our role historically and legislatively. By participating in this training, you choose to make a positive statement that knowledgeable and conscientious steps are needed by families/parents in order to bring the kind of change necessary for systems change.
The institute was developed to help you disseminate the definition of family-driven care with fidelity, train others to apply its principles with integrity and use its characteristics to help families, family-run organizations, systems of care, and communities transform the way behavioral health care (as well as any other relevant service) is delivered to children and youth and the way their families are involved in making decisions.
As a graduate of the Institute you will be given the opportunity to serve as a representative of the family movement and systems of care, promoting the definition, principles and characteristics of family-driven care and encouraging families and their system partners to move from rhetoric to reality through the F.A.C.E.S. Council.
The Institute was formatted by families for families with consultation and shared materials from the National Federation of Families and their state organizations and chapters with funding provided by Maine’s Children’s Behavioral Health Services.
The principle of “family-driven” seems to imply that something is being driven, so buckle your seat belt and enjoy the journey.
Sincerely,
Carol Tiernan, Director
G.E.A.R. Parent Network
