the way home
Our vision for the Bridging Families Program is a world where children live with their families.
What is Bridging Families™?
We use a team approach to family reunification that:
- Builds resilience to strengthen families
- Utilizes Professional Foster Parents to empower parents
- Walks with families throughout the reunification process
Development of the Bridging Families Program began in 2020 with the mission to successfully and permanently reunify families. In 2024, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services selected Bridging Families™ as the state model for professional foster parenting.
To learn more or to make a referral, contact Crossnore Referrals and Admissions at (866) 892-6213 or referrals@crossnore.org.
The core elements of the Bridging Families Program are grounded in what science tells us about child development, resilience, and positive family functioning.
- The Bridging Families Program is a family-focused and team-based model of care designed to directly address the obstacles to family reunification.
- Bridge Parents are professional foster parents and are full-time, salaried agency employees. As Bridging Families foster parents they focus solely on supporting children and caretakers toward reunification.
- Bridging Families’ teams include professional foster parents, a dedicated licensed clinician, a care manager, and a supervisor. Bridging Families’ teams partner with no more than three participating families which allows for intensive focus. The program is clinically supervised by Crossnore’s senior clinical staff.
- Bridging Families is designed to meet the needs of sibling sets with two or more children of any age or gender and in the custody of the department of social services with reunification as their permanency plan. The identified caretaker must be available and capable of participating in the core program elements.
- All program staff are trained in Bridging Families core curriculum, Trust-Based Relational Intervention, and The Sanctuary Model. This model is intentional as it strives to restore hope for parents and their children after very difficult circumstances have resulted in removal of the children.
If you are an organization that is interested in starting a Bridging Families program, click here to complete a short inquiry form and schedule an informational meeting.
