Family Support & Specialist Programmes

Service delivered in the community

Forward’s Family Support & Specialist Programmes team, led by Katherine Jenkins, brings a wealth of insight, expertise and evidence-based practice to support your organisation.

We offer:

Licensed Programmes: training and support for your organisation to deliver evidence-based programmes on a licence basis (annual fee + training costs).
Online Group Programmes: access for your clients and service users to structured group programmes, joining peers across the country for shared experience and mutual support.
Staff Training: access for your teams to a range of modules and courses delivered in person or online as ‘set’ programmes or on a bespoke ‘pick and mix’ basis.

Our particular areas of expertise:

Substance misuse, addiction, and mental health.
Supporting families affected by these issues as well as offending.

Licensed programmes (training & support for local delivery)

All our programmes are based on evidence and the principles of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Transactional Analysis, and Systemic Family Therapy.

M-PACT (Moving Parents and Children Together)

This whole family programme brings together parents and children affected by addiction* and is used in 35 local authority areas. M-PACT aims to:

M-PACT programme – information and referral page

Increase coping skills.
Improve family functioning.
Identify resources to provide ongoing practical help.
Build resilience and increase protective factors.

M-PACT helped me understand how my actions affects people around me.
M-PACT Service User

*M-PACT for gambling is also available.

Relationships Matter

Relationships Matter supports individual service users who are also receiving treatment for substance misuse or related support to:

Identify areas they would like to change in their relationships with family members (and others).
Build and maintain positive relations to increase their support network.

I enjoyed getting to understand myself and others and our feeling and working together.
Relationships Matter Service User

Other services currently under development:

Parenting in Prison
Positive Parenting & Recovery

Online Group Programmes (access to UK-wide groups)

Recovering Families UK (RFUK)

If you are aged 18 years and over, this free online programme supports adult family members and significant others to:

Enhanced understanding of addiction – helping to find new ways of coping and living with a loved-ones addiction
Improved self-care and wellbeing – advice around better sleep routines, healthy eating and exercise
Identifying coping strategies – maintaining healthier boundaries (e.g. enabling behaviours)
Connecting with others – meeting other people that share similar circumstances of addiction in the family

We are now accepting applicants for the May cohort. Simply apply using the self-referral form below.

Recovering Families UK (RFUK) – self-referral form

I found everything helpful and useful. This service has certainly helped me view things differently, with a whole different slant on handling difficult and sensitive situations.
Recovering Families Service User

Participant’s will receive six one-to-one sessions and 14 group sessions – all delivered online.

*Also available as licensed programme (training & support delivered locally in person).

Recovery Online (delivered by Forward’s Recovery Directorate)

A 12-week structured abstinence-based group programme that people can access flexibly at a time that suits them. Groups comprise up to 12 people at any time to ensure the right balance of peer support, groups dynamic, and individual expression. The programme comprises:

Recovery Online – information and referral page

Step assignments – working through the first three of the twelve steps.
Reading groups, lectures, & workshops – all based around motivational enhancement.
Family sessions – exploring topics such as family identity, relationships, and co-dependency.
Education, training, & employment sessions – including an introduction to Forward’s employment services.
Weekly 1-2-1 sessions.

I felt so isolated and desperate…it enabled me to reconnect with life and meet like-minded people. Now I am living in recovery.
Recovery Online Service User

Staff training

Substance Misuse Awareness for Housing Workers

We can offer bespoke courses based on a range of modules and topics.

Do get in touch if you would like more information.