The Village for Families and Children offers a comprehensive array of services for children and families. If you do not see a program that matches your needs, or if you would like more information about any of those listed below, please call 860.236.4511.  CLICK HERE FOR A PRINTABLE VIEW OF SERVICES.

Adoption & Support

The Village Adoption Program recruits and approves families for children whose permanency plan is adoption.  The program reflects the belief that it is the right of each child to be wanted, loved and to grow up in a safe and nurturing family. Children are placed through DCF.  Families interested in adoption may attend Village information sessions on the second Thursday of each month. Click here for a schedule of meetings or call 860.236.4511.

Post Adoption Support are offered to all families who have adopted in the state of CT and who are in need of support can access services through the Adoption Assistance Program at UCONN. Their phone number is 877-679-1961.

Adoption Search Services

Upon request, the Village will provide information to adult adoptees and birth parents.  Adoptees age 18 or older can request non-identifying background and medical information or identifying information regarding their birth family.  Birth parents can request identifying information about an adult adoptee.  Consent is required for releasing identifying information.  The Village also maintains an Adoption Reunion Registry according to Connecticut General Statutes, Sec. 45-68A-45-68p, where adult adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents can register. Click here for a full brochure .

The Village's Centering model of health and preventive services for pregnant and parenting adolescent and yound women will provide pre- and postnatal care through a unified health promotion program that integrates three components; health assessment, education, and support, within a group setting.  Supported by a strong and growing evidence-based, this approach results in improved psychosocial function, increased birth weight, reduced preterm births, and higher breastfeeding initiation.  For more information contact Kim Martini-Carvel at the Center for Family Life @ Gray Lodge (860) 236-4511 ext. 3606

Center for Family Life at Gray Lodge
Located in the historic Asylum Hill neighborhood of Hartford offers programs and services to girls and young women.  Formerly a residential home, the lodge has now been transformed to offer a wide array of expanded services for the women and families within the neighborhood.   

Programs include:

• Friends of the Family
• Nurturing Families Network
• Centering Pregnancy
• Child FIRST
• Early Childhood Clinical Services
• The Academy for Successful Families
• Community Life Programs for Girls and Young Women
• GED

Alison Gill Lodge 

Alison Gill Lodge (AGL) is a residential therapeutic group home for up to six female adolescents, 13 – 21 years of age, who have experienced abuse and neglect, and are presenting psychiatric, behavioral, and emotional challenges.  AGL provides weekly individual, group, family, and recreational therapy in a safe, home-like community setting. Additional services provided are psychopharmacology, crisis management, health and nutrition management, independent living skills, community volunteer opportunities, and social enrichment activities. The program’s main goal is to provide therapeutic support that will help residents make sustainable progress toward recovery and independence, so they are able to live successfully in the community once discharged. Average length of stay is one year. This program is available through DCF referral only

Child FIRST

Child FIRST(Child and Family Resource, Support, and Training) is a clinical early childhood intensive in-home program that works to decrease the incidence of serious emotional disturbance, developmental and learning problems, and abuse and neglect among high-risk young children and families in Connecticut.  Child FIRST targets young children, prenatal to age six years, their parents, and their siblings who live in the Greater Hartford area. The target population is children exhibiting emotional and behavioral disturbances, have significant delays, or have parents with multiple challenges that impede their ability to support and nurture children. Specifically, parents frequently are suffering from mental health problems, substance abuse, domestic violence, inadequate education, unemployment, lack of childcare, poor health care, homelessness, and poverty. Families of all languages and ethnicities are served, with capacity to communicate in English and Spanish.  The Child FIRST team is comprised of a clinician and case manager that work to build the parent child relationship through an attachment based intervention.

Community Support for Families

The Community Support for Families program is a family-driven program funded by the CT Department of Children and Families (DCF) that employs an alternative approach to supporting families who come in contact with DCF due to suspected child abuse or neglect, and are at low risk.  Families drive the decision making about the services and supports they will receive.  The program is designed to build on families strengths and expand connections to both formal and informal resources that families identify they need.  Service needs can range from behavioral health services to basic needs assistance. 

Eagle House Sub-Acute Residential Treatment Program

Eagle House provides residential behavioral health treatment for children aged 12 and under who are transitioning from psychiatric hospitalization.  Serving as a “step down,” Eagle House helps children prepare for family and community-based treatment or therapeutic foster care.  Eagle House residents attend school on site and participate in therapeutic activities as well as clinical services.  With the support of Village staff, these children learn to soar like eagles.  This program is available through referral only.

Enhanced Care Clinic

The Village’s Enhanced Care Clinic provides high-quality treatment for children and families presenting with psychiatric, behavioral, and emotional challenges. Services are guaranteed within a maximum of two weeks, depending on severity of need. Treatment methods include traditional individual, family, or group treatment; play therapy; and art therapy. Parents of children in treatment may also receive supportive services, including Common Sense Parenting classes specially designed to help parents maintain their children’s therapeutic gains.

Extended Day Treatment (EDT) Program

The Village Extended Day Treatment Program provides after-school and summer clinical treatment services for children aged 5 to 14 who exhibit emotional and behavioral problems and their families.  Children in EDT receive group treatment and therapeutic activities designed to improve behavior and increase social skills.  The program aims to help these children remain in the community and avoid the need for residential placement; in some cases, the program assists children returning from an out-of-home placement with successful reintegration into the community.  Family involvement in therapy is essential to a child's treatment; the program requires active participation from parents.  Programs are located on the Village’s Albany Avenue campus in Hartford, the Community Child Guidance Clinic in Manchester, and Meriden.  This program is only available through DCF referral.  For more information.

Family Financial Empowerment Center

The Financial Empowerment Center works with low-income families, many of whom have significant debt or other financial challenges, to achieve financial stability by accessing resources, reducing debt and increasing savings. A full-time bilingual coordinator provides financial literacy education and individualized coaching and credit education. Program services currently include a special matched savings program for women and free tax preparation through a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program that can help eligible filers secure the Earned Income Tax Credit. The Center is based at Burr and Clark Community Schools, and also serves other Village locations. Services are targeted to parents, but are open to all Hartford residents. This program is made possible by the support of the United Way of Northeastern and Central Connecticut Women's Leadership Council.

Fatherhood Initiative - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Father Works program will assist young fathers between the ages of 15-24. The goal is to reduce future unplanned pregnancies and to help our young fathers understand the Joys of fatherhood and parenting. Program services include parenting and co-parenting education, case management services, clinical group and individual therapy services, sex education (to decrease risky behaviors and promote safe and healthy behaviors), vocational and employment opportunities. To learn more or to particpate in the study, please submit this referral form or contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Friends of the Family (FOF)

Friends of the Family (FOF) is a comprehensive program for pregnant and parenting adolescents (age 21 and under) and their families, which includes case management, mental health services, home visiting, parenting skills training, and career development services. FOF helps young parents build upon their strengths, obtain needed resources, and ensure better lives for themselves and their children.  The Friends of the Family program is located at the Center for Family Life at Gray Lodge, 105 Spring Street, Hartford. Watch this video from teens about Teenage Pregnancy

Foster Care - Therapeutic

The Foster Care Program places children aged 8 to 18 who are in need of special therapeutic care in family settings that provide stability and a sense of security. The program provides on-going training for parents, helping them through the process of becoming fully licensed to foster children. Foster parents are caregivers and teachers who help children manage their feelings, build positive relationships, and experience success. The job is rewarding and challenging and, throughout, the Village offers continuing support so that fostering becomes a positive experience for both parents and children.  Child placement is available through DCF referral only.  Families interested in providing therapeutic foster care may attend Village information sessions on the second Thursday of each month, or contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for additional information. Click her for a schedule of meetings or call 860.236.4511. 

Foster Care - Family and Community Ties Program

The Family and Community Ties Program is a new foster care model that combines a wraparound approach to service delivery with professional parenting for children and youth, 6 - 17 years of age, presenting complex psychiatric and behavioral issues. A trauma-informed approach to treatment is implemented through the use of the TARGET model. This service is differentiated from other foster care services by (a) the frequency and intensity of home-based clinical services and (b) flexibility in providing "whatever it takes" to preserve the placement of a youth in a family setting.  Within this program, foster parents serve as full members of the treatment team and complete intensive training in trauma-informed behavioral interventions. Foster homes include two caregivers, with one adult being in the home at all times. Biological family involvement in the treatment process is essential. The goal for each youth in the program is to achieve permanency.  Ideally, the length of stay for youth will be no longer than 18 months.  

Institute for Successful Families

The Village’s Institute for Successful Families provides evidence-based parenting skills training, primarily through the Common Sense Parenting and People Empowering People curricula. The Institute is also serving as the backbone of the Village’s Integrated Early Childhood and Family Services model, which will provide young children and their families with mental health assessment and treatment services, case management, school-readiness programming, and parent training.

Intensive Family Preservation

The Village Intensive Family Preservation (IFP) workers provide intensive in-home, time-limited services to DCF-involved families whose children are at imminent risk of placement outside of the home.  The program’s primary goals are prevention of out-of-home placement by reducing the risk of further harm to children and improvement in family functioning.  Program staff and families work together to achieve these goals.  This program is available through DCF referral only. 

Intensive In-Home Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Services (IICAPS)

IICAPS is an intensive home-based treatment model for children and youth with severe emotional/ psychiatric disturbances who are stepping down from institutional treatment, are at risk of hospitalization or residential treatment, or are unresponsive to clinic-based services. Clinical services provided through IICAPS include individual therapy for the child/adolescent, individual therapy and parent guidance for the parent, family therapy, and case management for the family.  Each family will receive an average of five hours of services per week, provided by a clinical team that includes a Mental Health Counselor and a Clinician.  IICAPS addresses challenges in four domains of the functioning: child, family, environment, and school. The IICAPS program provides 24/7 crisis intervention services to the families. The Village provides IICAPS services in partnership with the Yale Child Study Center. Referrals for this program come from outpatient clinicians, hospitals/residential/day treatment programs, schools, DCF, and families.

Intensive Safety Planning

The Village Intensive Safety Planning (ISP) workers serve families in the Middletown and Waterbury areas whose children have been removed due to existing safety factors.  The program’s primary goals are preventing out-of-home placement by reducing the risk of further harm to children and improving family functioning.  Program staff provide intensive in-home services to each family for at least 14 hours per week, aiming for family reunification within 20-24 days.  This program is available through DCF referral only.

Intensive Community-Based Intervention Program

The Intensive Community-Based Intervention Program provides a continuum of clinical and therapeutic services to adolescent girls and boys, ages 13-18, with histories of trauma and neglect, and who are presenting complex psychiatric, behavioral and emotional challenges. The goal of this program is to provide a continuum of clinical and therapeutic services for adolescents to help them stabilize and enable them to transition to, and remain in, a family setting in the community. This program provides brief milieu treatment, intensive home-based services, adolescent and family teaming, and brief stabilization services as needed, offering different levels of interventions that include step-up, step-down, and wraparound options during the different stages of treatment.  Core services are facilitated by a clinical team, and include adolescent and family coordination, trauma work, permanency planning, family therapy, crisis stabilization, milieu treatment, and connections to appropriate services continuing through his/her transition to the community.

Juvenile Review Board

In collaboration with the Hartford Office for Youth Services, the Juvenile Review Board (JRB) program works to divert juvenile offenders from the formal justice system. JRBs take a restorative justice approach, which balances the needs of the offender, the victim, and the community. JRBs provide offenders who take responsibility for their actions the opportunity to avoid Juvenile Court through a process during which they face the victim, their parent(s) or guardian, a group of volunteer community members, and law enforcement officials. JRBs focus on helping offenders to understand and acknowledge how their behavior harmed the victim and the community and to take responsibility to repair the harm, through either direct or indirect action. Additionally, JRBs provide support and assistance to help youths develop competencies that will enable them to effect necessary changes in their behavior to avoid re-offending in the future. JRBs are based in and tailored to the communities they serve. JRB is by referral of the Justice System only.

Mid-Level Developmental Assessment (MLDA)

Mid-Level Developmental Assessment (MLDA) is a feasible and effective model for the timely assessment of children suspected of developmental delays on the basis of surveillance and screening. Children with mild/moderate delays are efficiently linked to programs and services, while children with more severe delays have facilitated access to more comprehensive assessment and services.

Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT)

Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT) is an intensive, family-based treatment developed for adolescents 12 – 18½  years of age, who present with substance use, mental illness, and/or high-risk behaviors such as delinquency, truancy, and family discord. MDFT has been validated for use as a prevention model, an early intervention approach, an outpatient substance abuse treatment, and a step down from residential or drug treatment facilities. The treatment seeks to significantly reduce or eliminate the adolescent’s substance abuse and other problem behavior and to improve overall family functioning. The treatment approach has multiple components. Assessment and intervention occurs in several core areas of the teen’s life simultaneously. This program is available through a referral from DCF, juvenile court system, care coordination, school social workers/psychologists, clinicians, ad other community providers.

Mentoring Program - One-on-One Volunteer Mentoring

The Village One-on-One Mentoring staff recruit and train volunteer mentors for Hartford youth aged 14 to 21 in out-of-home care.  Mentors help the youth prepare for life on their own, explore career options, and evaluate educational alternatives.  If you would like to be considered as a Mentor, please click on this link for more information.  One-on-One Mentoring for youth is available through DCF referral only. Click here for information about Mentoring.

Pre School - Child Development Center

The Travelers Early Childhood Learning Center is a National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) accredited preschool that uses the High/Scope Curriculum. You will find ongoing and frequent adult-child interaction, a carefully designed physical learning environment, and a "Plan-Do-Recall" process that: builds initiative, teaches self-regulation, mindfulness, and collaboration. Our program supports children in reaching benchmark skills and developmentally appropriate goals in all academic areas, including pre-literacy skills. We equally support children’s growth and development with regard to creativity and self-expression. The Travelers Early Childhood Learning Center celebrates and welcomes diversity. To learn more contact, (860)236-4511 ext. 3655, 3657 or 3651. Click here for an enrollment form.

Psychological Evaluations Center

The Psychological Evaluations Center offers individualized psychological testing services for children ages 2 through 18. The Center uses the most advanced and culturally appropriate psychological tests available. Evaluations test for a wide range of diagnoses including anxiety disorders, depression, bipolar and mood disorders, developmental delays, neurocognitive deficits due to brain injury, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and many others. Following testing, a psychologist will discuss results and provide recommendations. This program is available through clinician referral.

RAMBUH Family Center

The Rambuh Family Center serves parents of children aged 8 and under in the Upper Albany/Blue Hills neighborhood of Hartford. The Center provides school readiness services, family literacy programs, parenting skills and parent advocacy training, and adult education programs. Rambuh is also a Nurturing Families Network program site, which provides home visiting and parent training to new parents identified as being at risk of child abuse or neglect. To reach the Center, call (860) 242-6058.

Reconnecting Families Program

The Village Reconnecting Families Program staff provides intensive support services for Hartford-area families with children in DCF custody whose permanency goal is family reunification.  Service components include parenting education and skill building, parent-child relationship development, safety planning, and therapeutic visitation.  This program is available through DCF referral only.

Safe Home

The Safe Home provides short-term services for children, ages 6-13, who are living in out of home care due to abuse, neglect or other significant risk factors. The children served in this program have experienced multiple placements, abuse, neglect or abandonment and may have a variety of special needs including medical and mental health concerns, and potential high-risk behaviors. The Safe Home provides clinical interventions and case management services designed to engage and stabilize the children, build their social and coping skills and ensure they are well prepared to transition successfully to a family setting. The targeted length of stay for children in the Safe Home is 60-90 days.

Sankofa House Permanency Diagnostic Center

Sankofa House was named after an African mythical bird that symbolizes the need to look to the past to prepare for the future.  Children aged 12 and under are placed at Sankofa House after experiencing multiple out-of-home placements.  With the house’s namesake in mind, Village staff help the children understand and address the trauma of their past and develop an effective permanency plan for the future.  Staff work with biological and foster families, DCF, and other community partners to create a full assessment of the child and designate supportive services before, during and after placement.  This program is only available through DCF referral.

School-Based Programs

The Village has a wide variety of programs based in 12 Hartford public schools.

• Our 21st Century Community Learning Centers focus on engaging youth through high-quality academic support services, leadership and character development programs, and enrichment/recreational activities. Open daily after school, these Village Centers give students a safe place to do homework, learn new hobbies, and meet good friends.
• The Village's Community Schools is a collaboration between the school and other community resources.  Programs inlcude the after-school program, mental health services, truancy and teen programs, and financial empowerment education. The after-school program provides high-quality academic, enrichment, and recreational programming. Through research-based, high-interest curricula, after school initiatives give students the academic support they need, as well as ways to develop life skills, explore new interests, and contribute to their communities.
• Village Family Resource Centers provide school-based support services for parents and children. Services include parent education and support programs, adult education programs, family literacy programs and after-school and summer Positive Youth Development programs. Resource Center staff also facilitate linkages to community services to meet basic needs, such as food, clothes and housing. 

Therapeutic Mentoring

The Village Therapeutic Mentoring offers therapeutic mentoring to children who need a consistent, caring relationship to support treatment goals and maintain or transition to community placements.  Village Therapeutic Mentors provide one-to-one services to a child for 6 to 8 hours per week at flexible hours for extended periods of time.  Mentors and children work together to achieve customized therapeutic goals, such as improved behavior, increased social skills, and decreased sibling conflict.  Mentors also provide support to caregivers, advocacy for the family, and linkages to community supports. This program is by referral or fee-for-service..

Truancy Court Prevention Program

The Truancy Court Prevention Program (TCPP) helps youth with truancy problems engage in school through intensive on-site case management, academic assessment and support, legal advocacy, and enrollment in after-school activities. The Village’s TCPP partners include the Capitol Region Education Council (CREC), the Center for Children’s Advocacy, the Connecticut Judicial Branch, and Hartford Public Schools. TCPP sites include Quirk Middle School and Bur School.