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Innovative policies and practices are helping families in recovery overcome isolation, while strengthening relationships among babies, mothers, and fathers. As policies and practices evolve, families are taking an active role in deciding on and engaging with approaches that support their vision for their children, their goals, desires, and well-being—building stronger connections within their families and communities.

Join us to learn about policy shifts that are replacing punitive approaches with therapeutic ones, about practices that connect infants and parents right from the start, and how fathers are strengthening their families in recovery.

The summit will consist of three 90-minute virtual national conversations along with 30-minute opening and closing remarks by leaders in the substance use recovery field.

Panel 1: Innovative policies for family strengthening and reunification

This conversation will lift up innovative policies from around the country designed to support family efforts for recovery and reunification whenever safe and feasible, including healthcare policies that reduce stigma, trauma, the risk of child maltreatment, and preventable early child welfare involvement. Find out what states and sovereign Tribal nations and courts are doing to address the unique challenges and opportunities of these times, including in rural and Tribal communities, as well as about opportunities to advocate for fair and effective investment of Opioid Settlement funds.

Panel 2: The AMOR model for strengthening family relationships right from the start

Infants born after substance exposure can express their distress in ways that elicit strong protective urges from providers and society at large. Yet critical to their recovery are the strong emotional attachments in lasting relationships with family members. Long before they can talk, infants’ behavior offers us — together with parents — a guide to the recovery journey for infants, parents, and their relationships. This conversation will focus on the ways that providers and peer mentors implement “AMOR-Informed Care” using the Newborn Behavioral Observations system (NBO). The NBO helps providers and parents to understand newborns’ behavior, sensitively attune to their cues, and bolster infant-parent attachment as foundational to the recovery process for the whole family.

Panel 3: Learning with and from fathers in families in recovery

Join us for a robust conversation with fathers sharing their authentic lived experiences of family bonds and navigating the journey toward reunification. We explore the profound realities of what it is like for fathers to overcome isolation and stay connected, rebuild relationships, overcome barriers, and strengthen commitment. As we develop a deeper understanding of the challenges and the strengths fathers face in maintaining family relationships, these stories become bridges, experiences become wisdom, and individual journeys contribute to our collective healing.