CLFC & Healthy Marriage

COPES, Inc has been awarded two federal grants that will greatly expand our local capacity to serve the Louisville community using Creating Lasting Family Connections in new and creative ways. One initiative – the Louisville Healthy Fathers and Families Project – was awarded 2.5 million dollars to use CLFC as a basis for a project to foster healthy fatherhood, relationship skills and marriage enrichment to offenders returning to the Louisville community. A second Healthy Family grant awarded COPES, Inc 1.3 million dollars. The Healthy Family project will help build and re-build love and trust in families and promote family healing. Again we will be working with families with a family member returning from an incarceration setting. Nine community partners supported COPES’ proposal and will provide supportive services to the project. The Kentucky Department of Corrections will encourage the re-entry population to take advantage of these projects as a way to increase their success as they address issues of recovery, sobriety and family healing while becoming productive citizens of the larger community.

Present staff members Ted and Teresa Strader and Ric Stuecker will be fully engaged in these new projects. They will be joined by 7 new professionals being interviewed and hired in the next month or so to take on the challenge of these new grants. Craig McGuire and Associates will again provide evaluation services. It is our hope that these projects will be the prototypes for new and effective approaches to aid re-entry populations in navigating their way back into society successfully using CLFC as a basis for skill building, family strengthening and personal transformation. . Anyone experienced with CLFC, available and interested in working with us and CLFC in Louisville is encouraged to apply for one of these positions by sending a letter and resume to tstrader@sprynet.com.