School of Social Work at UT Arlington

New Connections Programs - School of Social Work

About Us

Mission

The mission of the New Connections Programs is to build healthy and nurturing families by teaching the skills to support recovery, improve parenting, strengthen knowledge of child development and address difficult parent and child issues. The Programs also serve as a platform for research and student education in various Social Work content areas.

The New Connections Programs

The State-funded projects comprising the New Connections Programs include the following:

  • The New Connections Family Intervention program is a comprehensive intervention program for young children and families who are juggling the demands of parenting and staying clean and sober at the same time. The program enrolls children age 0-5, who may be in any way affected by substance abuse, and a parent or other committed caregiver. Specific program services include recovery-sensitive parent education, recovery support, health education, family case management, therapeutic child care, developmental screenings for children, playgroups, parent/child interactive labs, and limited participant transportation services. New Connections Family Intervention services are provided by a multidisciplinary team representing developmental psychology; chemical dependency counseling; parent education; nursing, and health education; social work; case management and child care.
  • The Staying Connected project aims to reduce the incidence of child abuse and neglect, and the parallel risk for child welfare and criminal justice involvement, among a target population of high risk families by providing a program of in-home educational and support services. Specific program services include individual and family assessment, targeted parent education, in-home case management, and support services, including problem identification, referral & referral follow-up, and crisis intervention. Staying Connected services are provided by a case management team representing professional and paraprofessional mental health counseling; chemical dependency counseling; and parent education.
  • New Connections also includes a small Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) Prevention project providing screenings for alcohol use and brief educational interventions for women at risk for an alcohol exposed pregnancy. These services are provided on a part-time basis at a Parkland women’s clinic in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas providing well-woman and obstetric care.