Family Treatment Court to Hold Graduation Ceremony 
 
The Family Treatment Court will hold the third graduation ceremony for its program to assist mothers overcoming drug addiction in a Community Action Group (CAG) residential treatment setting where they live with their children.  The graduating women have completed a 6-month comprehensive program in which they not only received drug treatment, but also learned about healthful lifestyles for themselves and their children.  Because the children have lived in the treatment facility with their mothers, the families are able to avoid ‘family reunification’ concerns that can occur when children are placed in temporary care situations.  In addition, the youngest children have been in an educational day care program and the older children attended their regular school during the daytime hours while their mothers were in treatment sessions.  Following graduation from six months of residential treatment, the mothers will participate in six months of after-care, monitored by the Court and the service providers.  The goal is that at the end of the treatment phase and the after-care, the reasons for the initial filing of the neglect case will be resolved and the children can be legally reunited with their mothers.  The intent of the program is to graduate mothers to lives without drugs and with jobs and housing to provide for their families.   
 
The Family Treatment Court graduation will be part of the Community Action Group’s graduation program that will begin at 3 pm on September 11.   The Family Treatment Court component will be held from 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm when a total of 11 moms and 24 children will be honored. 
 
WHAT: Family Treatment Court graduation  
 
WHERE: Cramton Auditorium at Howard Universityб 2455 Sixth Street, NW 
 
WHEN: Saturday, September 11, 2004 at 4:30 pm  
 
WHO:  The Honorable Anita Josey-Herring,  Deputy Presiding Judge of Family Court  and Family Treatment Court Judge    The Honorable Lee F. Satterfield,  Presiding Judge of Family Court