40 Years of Coming Together for the Good of Families
Forty years ago, leaders and practitioners came together around an idea: young people should be able to receive the support and treatment they need in a family setting. By sharing what they knew worked, they could help make that possible for more children and families.
That gathering helped lay the foundation for FFTA and was essentially our first “Annual Conference.” It also established a way of working that continues to define us: bringing people together to learn from one another and strengthen what they can accomplish in their communities.
That commitment still guided us, as we came together this summer for our 40th Annual Conference in Chicago.
A Community that has Grown with You
While Treatment Foster Care defined our roots of coming together and remains an important part of FFTA’s work, today our community also reflects the many connected ways organizations support family well-being through child welfare, mental health, family support, and other human services.
That evolution follows the work of our members. As families’ needs change, organizations adapt. They develop new services, build partnerships, and rethink how to support people within their communities. FFTA has evolved alongside them, creating opportunities to share that experience and put it to work across the sector.
If you know FFTA primarily through treatment foster care or our annual conference, there is more to discover.
Whether a provider organization, public agency, community mental health organization, researcher, foundation, or a partner providing business solutions in the sector, there’s a place for you in the FFTA Community. There is also a place for the many people whose contributions make that work possible: direct service professionals, resource parents, supervisors, fundraising and human resources teams, executives, and board members.
Different roles bring different perspectives. Bringing those perspectives together helps us ask better questions, see possibilities, and develop stronger responses to the challenges families and organizations face.
Connection, Education, and Advocacy
Today, FFTA’s work centers around three things: connection, education, and advocacy.
Connection means helping you find the right resource at the right time. Sometimes that is a tool or an idea. Often, it is another person who understands your work, someone who has tried an approach you are considering, faced a similar challenge, or can help you think through what comes next.
Education helps turn that exchange into practice. Through conferences, webinars, leadership development, and other learning opportunities, we bring people together to explore best practices, improve services, and strengthen how they lead and support their teams.
Advocacy brings those experiences into the decisions that affect families and communities. It includes working to shape policy and lifting up the voices of the people our members serve. It also means making the work of member organizations more visible, so others understand its value and what it takes to sustain it.
Together, these are the ways FFTA helps organizations amplify their impact.
Supporting the People Who are a Lighthouse for Others
At our conference this summer, keynote speaker Steve Pemberton brought the lighthouse theme to life. In The Lighthouse Effect, he explores how ordinary people can have an extraordinary impact on others.
That idea has a clear connection to this community. Across our member organizations, people show up consistently, build trust, and help children and families see possibilities in difficult circumstances. Much of that work happens quietly, through relationships that take time and care.
Those showing up for children and families also need connection and support. This includes places to learn, exchange ideas, and speak honestly about the challenges and successes of their work. FFTA helps create those places, and at the 40th Annual Conference it was inspiring to look out and see you all…700 unique and different lighthouses, who guide children and families each day.
Coming Together for the Good of Families
At the close of my conference remarks, I asked the room to join me in a cheer: “I’m here for the good of families.” Hearing people say it together was a reminder of the purpose we share across organizations, roles, and communities.
That purpose connects FFTA’s beginnings to who we are today. It helps anchor us to our roots and history, while giving us a way to think about the future.
And, after 40 years, we are still coming together…for the good of families!
Writer: Ryan Dowis, FFTA Executive Director
