South Florida Community

Family Partnership for Our Girls' Futures

Led by Dr. Gayle Dakof, Research Associate Professor at the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, a grant from The Children’s Trust is changing the lives of many adolescent girls in South Dade. This service partnership is a family focused system of care designed to prevent delinquency, arrest, out of home placement, school failure and dropout, pregnancy, and the continuation of the cycle of involvement in the criminal justice and child welfare systems among high risk 11 - 18 year old females living in the Naranja / Homestead area.  An evidence-based, family focused intervention system, Multidimensional Family Therapy, is the integrative organizing system of Family Partnership for Our Girls’ Futures. This project has been in operation since March 1^st 2008.

Family Partnership for Our Girls’ Futures is a partnership between the University of Miami CTRADA, Family Counseling Services and Planned Parenthood, providing valuable services to adolescent girls in the South Miami-Dade county community. The University of Miami acts as the fiscal agent, trainer, supervisor and overall administrator of the project, Family Counseling Services provides family therapy, and Planned Parenthood provides sexual education, pregnancy prevention and sexual health related services.

The Children’s Trust
The Children’s Trust is a dedicated source of funding created by voter referendum in 2002 to improve the lives of children and families in Miami-Dade County by making strategic investments in their future – because all children are our children. The Trust focuses its investments in the areas of health, development and safety and to increasing parental and community responsibility in children.