CAFC Makes Organizational Changes

Effective December 1, 2009, CAFC will be restructuring and refocusing on our roots.  Our focus going forward is to provide the baseline research and education needed to bringing about a fundamental shift in the understanding of family dynamics, divorce and family violence utilizing the educational materials we have developed over the years and we believe expansion of these educational forums will lead to a more rapid acceptance of badly needed fundamental policy changes that benefits families.

What we are planning is to expend our efforts on is primarily in creating important groundwork, sponsoring of research and most importantly the dissemination of cutting edge knowledge to bring badly need evidence-based knowledge to help families properly integrate child needs against the adversarial hostilities that surround the issues in our family and juvenile courts. Our current educational materials are orientated toward important decision makers in the family and juvenile court systems.

We will be paring down our direct advocacy work.  Our advocacy was a resounding success.  Our work has been unparalleled, reaching the entire nation in the debate on issues that are important to families and children including the integrity of post divorce children to be able to maintain a relationship with both mothers and fathers.

However, we believe that playing a role in shaping law will not be the best approach in the future for CAFC. While many laws and policies do need to be reformed, the laws themselves are not as much the problem but rather the interpretation and colored viewpoints of individuals that have been the single largest barrier to making a lasting change. This paradox is similar to the civil rights movements of the African-Americans and also the movements of same sex relationships.  These movements have been successful, less thru making a law, but rather by reaching people and changing their minds through education and educational materials such as the programs and DVDs CAFC has produced.

The impact these DVD materials have already had is substantial. Mental health practitioners and others are using them to do workshops to educate others. Our novel Educate a Decision Maker program can seriously help to expand the outreach and helps everyone. A Northern California workshop training series using the DVDs is already scheduled to take place in four different locations beginning in February 2010 and will run through May 2010.

CAFC’s Approved Continuing Education Provider (CEU) Status and the evidence-based materials that we have developed are truly unique and will also help us widely disseminate this to the judicial bench, state bar and other professionals who work in this field.

We are looking forward to expanding our evidence-based educational programs into other areas affecting families and children. 

Direct advocacy work will continue to be a viable tool.  Our Co-Founder, Michael Robinson has taken a position with another organization were he will continue his advocacy for policy reforms. Read his parting message here.

Sadly, we certainly feel for many people in the community who request our help.  However, we can no longer respond to your phone calls and emails regarding help with individual cases. Please feel free to email us with specifics of your case so that it can considered as part of research activities. Unfortunately, direct individual assistance will not be available due to a lack of stable funding and the poor economy.

CAFC is honored to have been able to serve and help so many men, women and children over the years and believe that we can help many more as a result of the groundswell we are creating.

We particularly want thank all of our supporters who have helped make it possible.  Without them, many members of the public would have seen harm in their lives.