Center For Family Services, Inc.

Program Overview and Background

Center For Family Services has extensive experience providing mentoring activities, case management, counseling, and connection to services to juvenile justice system-involved and at-risk youth throughout Southern New Jersey. Center For Family Services’ Legacy Through Leadership program offers one-on-one and group mentoring in New Jersey’s Camden and Gloucester Counties to youth ages 17 and under who are currently abusing or addicted to drugs (including opioids and methamphetamine), at risk for abusing drugs, and have family members who are currently abusing or addicted to drugs.

In Legacy Through Leadership, mentors are recruited, trained, accepted, and paired with youth. The overarching goal of Legacy Through Leadership is to improve outcomes (such as improved academic performance, reduced school dropout rates) for youth impacted by opioids and drug addiction through mentoring. Recognizing the underlying individual, family, and community traumas that many youth have experienced, Legacy Through Leadership also pairs mentoring services with voluntary trauma-informed, evidence-based counseling services.

Program Services

Legacy Through Leadership provides a continuum of evidence-based, trauma-informed services to meet the individual needs of youth served. These services include individual and group counseling, in- home grief outreach counseling, and monthly resiliency groups. The Legacy Through Leadership Counselor employs evidence-based approaches, such as trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT), SITCAP, and CBI as appropriate. Legacy Through Leadership provides one-on-one and group mentoring based upon and in accordance with MENTOR’s six elements of effective practice for mentoring. Program services are offered virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic allowing for the safety of staff, youth and volunteers, and offering a solution to transportation issues that youth/families may face.

Target Population

Center For Family Services’ Legacy Through Leadership target youth ages 17 and under in Camden and Gloucester Counties in New Jersey who are currently abusing or addicted to drugs (including opioids and methamphetamine), at risk for abusing drugs, and have family members who are currently abusing or addicted to drugs. A high percentage of those served live in families, communities, and environments that exhibit known risk factors (poverty, violence, etc.) for youth substance use and ACEs.