Family Partner Training and Certification
Via Hope operates the only statewide training and certification program for family partners that is recognized by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
Via Hope trains and certifies Family Partners in the state of Texas. A Certified Family Partner (CFP) is a parent or guardian who has lived experience raising a child with mental, emotional or behavioral health challenges and who has at least one year successfully navigating a child serving system.
The Certified Family Partner (CFP) is trained to use their lived experience for the purpose of education, role modeling and providing hope as it relates to the recovery process. CFPs are formal members of recovery (treatment) teams.
Currently, most Certified Family Partners work in community mental health centers, although their skills are used in many other settings such as public and private hospitals, juvenile justice centers, residential treatment centers, and many types of child serving organizations.
The Training
The Certified Family Partner (CFP) course is an intensive 4-day training. The certification training is available on the Certified Family Partner Application page. For the convenience of the participants, a certification exam is administered the last afternoon after training is completed. The certification exam is to ensure the family partner has the minimum competency skills to execute their responsibilities. The test primarily examines the application of the skills learned in the training.
Participants must successfully complete the training and receive a passing score on the exam to receive their certification. The curriculum used was originally developed by Texas stakeholders and Via Hope staff in 2011, based on resources from several other states. At this time the training is only offered in English. Efforts are underway to obtain funding to develop a Spanish language training.
Once certified, family partners must earn at least 20 CEUs every two years to maintain their certification. The recertification form is available on the Certified Family Partner Recertification Application page. CEUs are available from our endorsement trainings listed near the bottom of this page.
Advanced and Master Certification Levels
Once certified for four or more years CFPs may be eligible for Advanced (4 or more years) or Master (6 or more years) Level Certification. These levels require leadership experience, letters of recommendation, and a supervisory endorsement form, as described in the CFP Advanced Level Application and the CFP Master Level Application. Via Hope has no authority over the effect of the levels on salary or job requirements; this is at the discretion of the agencies where CFPs are employed.
Policy and Procedures Manual: The program is administered according to the policies and procedures in the Certified Family Partner’s Policy and Procedure Manual.
To learn more about the Certified Family Partner Training and Certification program, contact the Family Partner Coordinator or info@viahope.org
For a list of upcoming CFP basic and other CFP-related trainings, please visit our events calendar.
Via Hope Endorsement Training for CFPs
In addition to the basic certification training, Via Hope offers:
- CFP Supervisor’s Training
- Wraparound
- Special Education
- Juvenile Justice
- A webinar on trauma informed family partner support has been developed and will be incorporated into the certification curriculum starting in Fall, 2018