The Trauma-Informed Foster Care Adoption Model (TIFCAM), created by CHRIS 180, is a specialized therapeutic model focused on responding to children and youth who have experienced complex trauma, while addressing and incorporating caregiver attunement and feedback. The TIFCAM process includes a trauma assessment not only for the child, but for the potential adoptive family as well, so that strengths and potential challenges are identified and addressed. Specific services provided for children and youth through the TIFCAM model include having bi-weekly adoption preparedness sessions with the Adoption Specialist utilizing ARC - the Attachment, Regulation, and Competency trauma model. The family and child’s therapist provides parental support, coaching, and crisis intervention as needed. 

 

Prior to placement, families receive training on the impact of childhood trauma on development. Some childhood experiences of children in foster care include being emotionally, physically, or sexually abused, neglected, being separated from a biological parent, witnessing or being involved in domestic violence, having a family member with a substance abuse issue or having a family member who has a significant mental health concern. Many families face challenges with  children in the home, including being able to maintain the child with siblings or within the placement safely.

 

Success with the TIFCAM model has already been established. Since its development in 2013, CHRIS 180 has placed and finalized the adoptions of 34 children. TIFCAM is based on the philosophy that the child in foster care who is eligible for adoption has already experienced placement instability and a number of psychological “rejections”, in addition to the abuse and/or neglect which precipitated placement in the foster care system in the first place. TIFCAM supports the ideation that continuity of care, permanency, and family planning are essential in ensuring stability in the life of a child.