Nurturing Families™
Nurturing Families™ is a program designed to support families with children ages 0–19. Nurturing Families can be delivered to Spanish-speaking families using Criando Familias con Hijos de Todas Edades. The program aims to help families establish safety, heal, maintain healthy relationships, and understand the links between interpersonal violence, trauma, and substance use. Facilitators can deliver Nurturing Families as a prevention, intervention, or treatment program.
The program has 16 competency areas that build on one another and are designed to equip parents with new knowledge and skills to strengthen their role as parents and foster personal growth. Examples of competency areas include understanding routines and safety, discipline, communication, healthy life choices, and trauma and loss. Each competency area has 3–6 distinct lessons. Facilitators can choose to deliver certain competencies and lessons depending on the family’s need and type of services being delivered.
Facilitators aim to deliver lessons in a structured manner while tailoring the content and delivery to the needs of the family. Facilitators can deliver the program to groups of families, individual families, or through a combination of individual and group delivery. Facilitators can choose to hold sessions with parents only or with parents and their children. Each session includes time for an initial check-in about how the parents are feeling and changes they have seen in themselves, their children, and their family since the last lesson; a review of the previous home practice assignment; discussion questions; an overview of key content; an activity; a home practice assignment; and reflection time.
Nurturing Families does not currently meet criteria to receive a rating because no studies met eligibility criteria for review.
Date Research Evidence Last Reviewed: Sep 2024
Sources
The following sources informed the program or service description, target population, and program or service delivery and implementation information: the program or service manual and the program or service developer’s website.
This information does not necessarily represent the views of the program or service developers. For more information on how this program or service was reviewed, visit the download the Handbook of Standards and Procedures, Version 1.0
Target Population
Nurturing Families is designed for families with children ages 0–19.
Dosage
The length of treatment depends on the family’s needs. Each lesson the family participates in typically takes one session to complete. The suggested number of sessions is 5–12 for prevention services, 12–15 for intervention services, and 16–28 for treatment services. Each session is 90–120 minutes long. The program recommends that sessions be held weekly, but this is not required.
When program delivery is virtual, the program encourages facilitators to shorten sessions and increase the number of sessions offered each week to maximize engagement.
Location/Delivery Setting
Recommended Locations/Delivery Settings
Facilitators can deliver Nurturing Families in the home, in community settings, or online.
Education, Certifications and Training
Facilitators must have at least one year of experience working with families and children. Before implementing the Nurturing Families curriculum, facilitators must complete the required Nurturing Families Facilitator Certification Training. Training sessions are held virtually for 18 hours over 3 days. During training, facilitators learn how to implement the curriculum to individual families and groups of families. Facilitators must complete an annual recertification training after their initial certification.
Facilitators with at least 2 years of experience may become certified Nurturing Families Trainers through an 18-hour Training of Trainers course. During this course, participants learn how to conduct training and monitor fidelity. Certified trainers are required to attend quarterly Trainer Meetings, provide two facilitator trainings per year, and attend the Annual Recertification Conference.
Program or Service Documentation
Book/Manual/Available documentation used for review
Nurturing Families:
Thorn, S. M. (2021). Nurturing Families for families with children of all ages. Facilitator instructional manual with resources (2nd ed.). Praxis with Integrity.
Thorn, S. M. (2021). Nurturing Families for families with children of all ages. Family workbook (2nd ed.). Praxis with Integrity.
Criando Familias con Hijos de Todas Edades:
Thorn, S. M. (2021). Criando Familias con hijos de todas edades. Manual instructivo del facilitador con recursos. Praxis with Integrity.
Thorn, S. M. (2021). Criando Familias con hijos de todas edades. Cuaderno de familia. Praxis with Integrity.
Criando Familias con Hijos de Todas Edades was determined not to have any substantial adaptations from Nurturing Families that resulted in a different program or service for the purposes of the review.
Available languages
Nurturing Families materials are available in English and Spanish.
Other supporting materials
Nurturing Families Certification
For More Information
Website: https://nurturingfamiliescenter.com/
Phone: (830) 743-9955
Contact form: https://nurturingfamiliescenter.com/contact/
Note: The details on Dosage; Location; Education, Certifications, and Training; Other Supporting Materials; and For More Information sections above are provided to website users for informational purposes only. This information is not exhaustive and may be subject to change.
| Results of Search and Review | Number of Studies Identified and Reviewed for Nurturing Families™ |
|---|---|
| Identified in Search | 1 |
| Eligible for Review | 0 |
| Rated High | 0 |
| Rated Moderate | 0 |
| Rated Low | 0 |
| Reviewed Only for Risk of Harm | 0 |
Studies Not Eligible for Review
Study 14789
Grayson, K., & Thorn, S. (2019). Evaluation report. Nurturing Parenting Program 5- 19. Participants in fiscal year 2018. PRAXIS with Integrity-Family Texas Nurturing Center of Texas. https://nurturingfamiliescenter.com/wp-content/uploads/Research_Texas-Agency-1_Evaluation_FY2018Final.pdf
Grayson, K., & Thorn, S. (2019). Evaluation report. Nurturing Parenting Program 5- 19. July 2018-July 2019. PRAXIS with Integrity-Family Texas Nurturing Center of Texas. https://nurturingfamiliescenter.com/wp-content/uploads/Research_Texas-Agency-2_Evalutation_2018-2019Final.pdf
Grayson, K., & Thorn, S. (2018). Evaluation report 2017-2018. Nurturing Parenting Program 5- 19. PRAXIS with Integrity-Family Texas Nurturing Center of Texas. https://nurturingfamiliescenter.com/wp-content/uploads/Research_Texas-Agency-2_Evaluation_2017-20018Final.pdf
This study is ineligible for review because it is not a study of the program or service under review (Study Eligibility Criterion 4.1.6).