Monday, October 4, 1982 marked the opening of the Betty Ford Center.  That morning, Mrs. Betty Ford and co-founder, Leonard Firestone greeted two female and two male patients.   From that historic beginning, the philosophy of the Betty Ford Center has always considered addiction to alcohol and other drugs as a family disease.  Besides the patient, an average of eight others within the circle of family and close friends are also affected.  For this reason, the Betty Ford Center has always provided a five-day, comprehensive Family Program for family members and friends of the patients who are thirteen years of age and older. 

Twenty-five years later, more than 79,000 alumni have enrolled in our residential, outpatient, residential day treatment, 90-day program or Family Programs.

It is also a fact that almost one in three children in America lives in a home where addiction to and abuse of alcohol and other drugs has a strong negative impact.  In the mid 1990s, the Betty Ford Center clinical staff developed an educational and prevention program to intervene with children, the goal being: “Breaking this generational cycle of addiction.”  Once our staff had solid data that the Children’s Program was effective for our patients, they refined the program for families that had no patient connection to the Center.

In 1996, the Ronald McDonald Children’s Charity funded the first Betty Ford Center Children’s Program offered outside the Betty Ford Center campus in Southern California.  This represented an historic step as we began providing program services beyond our traditional borders.  It also fulfilled a dream that Mrs. Ford fostered to make our services accessible to all.  Contrary to the mythology that the Betty Ford Center is for the wealthy and well known, the target audience for the community version of the Children’s Program was a low-income, disadvantaged population.  

Within a few months, officials from treatment centers across the United States were calling with requests for information.  Based upon a thorough exploration of nine critical factors, the board of the Betty Ford Center endorsed Mrs. Ford’s recommendation in 1998 to open an office in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.  This was another historic step but again proved to be a successful endeavor.  The Betty Ford Center Children’s Program (The Five Star Kid’s Program as it is known in Texas) attracted numerous financial supporters and a roster of local and regional networking partners.

Based upon the success of the community versions of the Betty Ford Center Children’s Program in California and Texas, our board of directors authorized a “pilot program” for Colorado.   In the fall of 2006, the board approved the recommendation to establish a permanent office in Denver from which to serve the families of Colorado.  Funding from The Daniels Fund makes this financially viable.

In the past ten years over seven thousand children and their families have attended the Children’s Program at one of the three permanent locations.  Early grants not only allowed us to underwrite the development of the Children’s Program but also to establish a Fund to provide scholarships for families to attend.  While hundreds of supporters followed, this initial funding of a “pilot program” was pivotal.

In both California and Colorado, over 90% of all families attend at no or a greatly reduced tuition.  In Texas, the percentage on scholarship jumps to over 95%.

Under the leadership of Jerry Moe, Vice President and National Director of the Children’s Program, the Betty Ford Center Children’s Program has reached preeminence in the field.  In one decade, the program has reached families from every state and a dozen countries.  Last spring, Jerry Moe presented the first Children’s Program ever in China. This marked another milestone in the legacy of the Betty Ford Center Children’s Program.

Backed by independent research and evaluation, we know that the program is unique, effective and has a lasting impact.  We also know that we cannot add additional service locations beyond our latest move to Colorado.

Yet, how do we respond to weekly requests for information!  We simply cannot ignore the need that hurting children and families have for service.

To address this need and other opportunities in the area of training, education, research and consultation, the Betty Ford Center is developing a new Betty Ford Institute to serve as the global focal point on issues of abuse and addiction to alcohol and other drugs.  Designed to function in a relationship of “cooperative independence” from the Betty Ford Center, the Betty Ford Institute will tackle many of the nation’s most pressing and controversial issues affecting the treatment field.

Through the Betty Ford Institute, a viable option does exist to expand the activities of the Children’s Program to a new level of service nationally and possibly beyond.  Taking this next step in the evolution of the Children’s Program is an opportunity that we cannot overlook or ignore.

Based upon his thirty years experience working with children from addicted families, and the compilation of ten years of program results at the Center, Jerry Moe has designed a new model that we could eventually call the Betty Ford Institute “Children’s Program Training Academy.”   It is to fund the “Pilot Program” to explore the development of this Training Academy that we now approach you.

The Children’s Program philosophy and core benefits will reach new geographic areas, additional service providers and educational partners with the result that the number of families and children touched through the program can increase.  As local agencies are trained to serve this neglected population, the impact of the program spreads.

Jerry Moe and his specialized team can train qualified professionals to offer services in their own community under the on-going supervision and monitoring of the Academy staff.

In this first stage of the Children’s Program Training Academy, we will begin with the intent that refinement will occur during this initial year.  Practices, policies and protocols will be designed to assure the appropriate level of sensitivity needed to work with the most vulnerable of family members; the children whose needs are often overlooked or minimized.

The criteria for acceptance of applicants for enrollment in the Training Academy will be intentionally high. Enrollment will be reserved for professionals whose agency provides a realistic plan for using this training in their local community.   In addition to completing an application form summarizing academic credentials, experience and references, pre-interviews by phone or in person will be conducted by senior Academy staff.

During the “Pilot Program,” Jerry envisions conducting the first multi-phased session of the Training Academy.  Each full session involves attendee participation in a minimum of six distinct steps, or phases, as outlined below.        

This session will be limited to 10-12 professionals.  Estimating that most agencies will enroll at least two professionals, each session could involve up to five distinct organizations located around the country.

As initially designed, the six phases presented by the Training Academy are:

During Phase One, enrollees attend a 5-Day Orientation at the Betty Ford Center campus.  Participants are oriented to our treatment philosophy and program design, as well as the crucial steps in developing a successful program.

Each participant will submit an Action Plan outlining how they and their agencies would benefit from continued enrollment.  (This will allow Jerry and his team to assess how serious a candidate is and committed they are to the training philosophy.)

As Jerry has said, we are not measuring results by the number of professionals trained, but by the number of children served.

The admission and selection process will naturally evolve with experience.

During Phase Two, the Training Academy staff will schedule a 2-3 day site visit to the local agency.  This will provide the opportunity to present our philosophy to the agency staff/leadership and assess their commitment to the process.

They will jointly explore which format of the Children’s Program is best suited for their unique situation.  Each agency will probably have special circumstances to address, i.e. where to present, which days of the week, how often.  It will be our task to uncover the important variables that need to be incorporated in the local version of their Children’s Program.  It is always essential to make the program fit the local community and not make the local community fit our program.

During Phase Three, the Training Academy staff returns to our campus and designs a Children’s Program format that addresses the needs and circumstances of the local agency.

Phase Four involves another site visit to the local agency. During this week, our training Academy staff will present the program format designed specifically for the local agency. Discussion and modification would follow. A local 1 day workshop will take place to garner community support.

In Phase Five, the Training Academy staff trains the agency personnel in their specific format.  Additional time is devoted to refining an implementation plan and designing an effective strategy to promote the services.

Phase Six is on-going consultation and training that would extend over the period of the contract.  Initially, a contract would cover twelve months, and extended by mutual agreement.

Monitoring for compliance with philosophy and program presentation will be on-going. We also plan to explore obtaining appropriate professional endorsements and educational accreditations.  To maximize these opportunities we need to monitor carefully each “Pilot Program” training cycle.