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NAFI Connecticut 2022 Employee Awards Announced
December 30, 2022

Each year, NAFI recognizes and celebrates employees for the outstanding work they do in providing the highest level of innovative human and social services to individuals and families. Lynn Bishop, Executive Director of NAFI operations in Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York, recently announced this year’s award winners. (Also see the stories on the Rhode Island winners and […]

A Holiday Message from the Executive Director
December 15, 2022

Editor’s Note: Lynn Bishop, Executive Director of NAFI Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York, shared this end of the year holiday message with colleagues, and we would like to share it with you. Wishing everyone a safe, healthy, and joyful holidays and a hopeful 2023! Seasons Greetings! As 2022 comes to a close, it is […]

NAFI CT Honors Nearly 30 Year History of Providing Foster Care Services
November 3, 2022

NAFI’s foster care program, the Professional Parent Program (PPP) was the agency’s first program to open its doors in the state of Connecticut in 1994. PPP began by serving youth out of the old Long Lane School in Middletown, part of the state juvenile justice system. The goal was to deinstitutionalize youth by taking them […]

Hearst Connecticut Names NAFI CT to Top Workplaces 2022 List
September 25, 2022

NAFI Connecticut, Inc. has been awarded a Top Workplaces 2022 honor by The Hearst Connecticut Top Workplaces. The list of winners was announced Sept. 25 and marks the seventh consecutive year of Top Workplaces honors from either Hearst, The Hartford Courant, or both. Hearst also honored NAFI CT in 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2021. The Courant […]

NAFI Partners With CT DEEP on Summer Outdoor Program
September 15, 2022

NAFI Connecticut Inc.’s Linking Youth to Natural Communities (LYNC) program participated in a six-week summer work initiative administered by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). The Willimantic-based LYNC program provides services for court-involved youth and their families with a focus on making sustainable behavioral changes through evidence-based and informed services such as […]

NAFI CT’s Leíla Zureiqi Connor Presents MST-EA Model in France
August 30, 2022

Leíla Zureiqi Connor, Assistant Program Director of MST programs for NAFI Connecticut, Inc., traveled to Lyon, France, in early July to give a presentation at the 37th International Congress on Law and Mental Health about the MST-EA model pioneered by NAFI CT. The July 3-8 conference, presented under the auspices of the International Academy of […]

NAFI CT Applauds MST Clinical Supervisor’s New Horizons
July 31, 2022

MST-EA Clinical Supervisor Amanda Jacobs left NAFI Connecticut Inc. in June for a new opportunity as an MST Expert with Advanced Behavioral Health, Inc. She had arrived nearly 14 years ago while still a graduate student, joining our Middletown team as a MST program clinician and quickly developing a passion for community-based therapy. Just shy […]

NAFI Spirit of the Community Awards for CT, NY, and RI
March 15, 2022

The NAFI Connecticut, Inc., NAFI Rhode Island, and NAFI New York community recently honored the 2021 Spirit of the Community Award winners as part of a virtual Town Hall meeting. Joseph Matcham, a foster care Independent Living Specialist for NAFI NY, received a Spirit of the Community Award “for all that we love about you.” […]

Hope Is the Thing That Lights Up This Time of Year
December 17, 2021

Editor’s Note: Lynn Bishop, Executive Director of NAFI Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York, shared this end of the year holiday message with colleagues, and we would like to share it with you. Wishing everyone a safe, healthy, and joyful holidays and a hopeful 2022! Dear colleagues of NAFI Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York: […]

NAFI Connecticut 2021 Staff Awards Announced
December 16, 2021

Each year, NAFI recognizes and celebrates employees for the outstanding work they do in providing the highest level of innovative human and social services to individuals and families. Lynn Bishop, Executive Director of NAFI operations in Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York, recently announced this year’s award winners. (Also see the stories on the Rhode Island winners and […]

NAFI CT Named to Top Workplaces 2021 List by Hearst
September 26, 2021

NAFI Connecticut, Inc. once again has been named to the state’s Top Workplaces list by Hearst Connecticut Media. The 2021 list was announced in a Sept. 26 special section. This year marks the sixth consecutive year of Top Workplaces honors for NAFI CT from either Hearst, The Hartford Courant, or both. Hearst also honored NAFI CT in 2016, […]

NAFI CT/RI Buoyed by More than $200,000 in Recent Grants
September 24, 2021

NAFI Connecticut, Inc., whose leadership also guides operations in Rhode Island and New York, has been buoyed by nearly $212,000 in recent grants, some resulting from rigorous application processes and others simply arriving as a surprise. The grants include: $100,000 from the Rhode Island Foundation to support the COVID-related telehealth initiative $56,884 from The Champlin Foundation to purchase generators […]

NAFI CT Recognized by Human Rights Campaign Foundation for LGBTQ+ Inclusion Efforts
September 16, 2021

NAFI Connecticut, Inc.‘s Foster Care Services Division proudly announces being recognized in the 2021 Change-Makers Report, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s third annual report highlighting 119 child welfare agencies across the country that have worked with the HRC Foundation’s All Children – All Families (ACAF) program to improve the services they provide to the LGBTQ+ community, including children in […]

NAFI CT Celebrates Next Step for a Treasured MST Supervisor
August 26, 2021

When Lisseth Jurado Quiroga arrived at NAFI Connecticut, Inc. fresh out of graduate school at age 24 she possessed the “I’m going to save the world” enthusiasm of youth.  As a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW), she has been doing just that for individuals in need over the past seven years, and now Lisseth is moving on […]

Meet NAFI CT’s New Touchstone Principal Katie Ryan
August 2, 2021

Katie Ryan might have spent her career in education as an English teacher, but she felt a calling to pursue what some would consider a tougher path—one with the potential to dramatically reshape troubled young lives.  After working as an English teacher in New Haven and Hamden public schools for nearly a decade, including serving […]

NAFI Middletown Team Wins MST Sustained Excellence Award
June 29, 2021

NAFI Connecticut’s MST (Multisystemic Therapy®) team in Middletown has been honored by MST Services with MST Sustained Excellence awards for adherence to the model by the therapists. Team Supervisor Emily Tyson was given the Outstanding Supervisor Award for Team Adherence, and the full team, including Michelle Posada and Nicole Marotta, won the Sustained Excellence Award for Team Adherence. MST Services developed the […]

NAFI CT Counselor Mia Gaudet Wins ‘Whatever It Takes’ Award
June 18, 2021

NAFI Connecticut Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) Melissa “Mia” Gaudet has been honored by MST Services with the Whatever it Takes Award for the first quarter of 2021. MST Services developed the Multisystemic Therapy® approach to transforming the lives of troubled youth and their families, and partners with provider organizations like NAFI to use MST to treat at-risk youth, while […]

NAFI CT Launches Online Foster Parent Application Process
June 8, 2021

NAFI Connecticut, Inc., has partnered with the mission driven technology company Binti to launch a simple online application process for prospective foster parents. “Binti builds modern software with the goal of helping every child have a family,” the company website explains. “400,000 children are currently in foster care in the U.S. and millions are in orphanages around the […]

Coping With Anxiety in Unusual Times: Join NAFI on Zoom 4/27
April 20, 2021

Has your anxiety level been higher than normal lately? Are your children showing signs of anxiety based on the restrictions and changes with school, sports, and social situations? Is the COVID-19 pandemic or the prospect of returning to normal keeping you up at night, affecting your appetite, or simply diminishing your normal equilibrium and peace […]

Nilian’s Kidney Transplant & NAFI: A Story of Selfless Care
April 15, 2021

In early December, 14-year-old Nilian underwent a kidney transplant at Hartford Hospital. The surgery went well, the recovery even better, and the story behind Nilian’s adoptive family and her journey from a dire situation to new hope and possibilities is as inspiring as her medical transformation. It has been a team effort that includes the […]

2020 Spirit of the Community Awards: NAFI CT, RI and NY
December 27, 2020

 NAFI celebrates the amazing work its employees do for their communities in an awards ceremony each year recognizing those who go above and beyond the call of duty. This year, the ceremony had to be conducted remotely due to COVID-19 restrictions. NAFI’s Normative Community Approach creates a culture where people work together to achieve […]

Holiday and New Year Greetings from Dr. Bakal
December 24, 2020

Dear NAFI/NFI staff and family: As a very challenging 2020 comes to an end, let our holiday season be filled with gratitude for the extraordinary commitment and work you have done to ensure the wellbeing of consumers — and each other. You have taken on the added demands of the pandemic in ways that we couldn’t […]

This Holiday Season Is a Bridge Back to the ‘Best of Times’
December 22, 2020

Editor’s Note: Lynn Bishop, Executive Director of NAFI Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York, shared the following end of the year holiday message with colleagues, and we would like to share it with you. Wishing everyone a safe, healthy, and joyful holidays and a hopeful and prosperous 2021!   Dear colleagues of NAFI Connecticut, Rhode […]

NAFI CT Teams Up With Cake4Kids to Spark Some Smiles
December 21, 2020

The young women in NAFI Connecticut’s residential programs at the Touchstone Campus in Litchfield are writing a recipe for finding new sweetness in life by brightening the lives of other youth facing challenges. As part of NAFI CT’s partnership with the new Connecticut chapter of the national nonprofit Cake4Kids, the young women at Touchstone hope […]

‘Gratitude Grams’ Part 2: Meet More of NAFI’s Team Players
December 15, 2020

NAFI staff members in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York have a tradition of sharing “gratitude grams” with one another each year during the Thanksgiving season. We highlight the messages of appreciation on social media, including the NAFI CT Facebook page, and this year we began sharing some of them on the website, too. Here’s the […]

COVID-19 Didn’t Deter ‘Thanksgiving Elves’ of Project Turkey
December 11, 2020

Carnevale Project Turkey has been a holiday tradition for nearly 30 years and NAFI staff and volunteers in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York navigated the challenges of COVID-19 this year to make sure families received the extra boost they needed to make the holiday special. In Rhode Island, where Carnevale Project Turkey originated, NAFI […]

‘Gratitude Grams’ Highlight Appreciation for NAFI Staff
November 25, 2020

Each year, during the Thanksgiving season, we invite our employees to share “gratitude grams” with one another. These messages of appreciation provide a glimpse into the incredible support and commitment our employees demonstrate all year long in carrying out the vital and vibrant human services mission of the NAFI operations in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and […]

Connecticut Foster Families Get Financial Help Amid COVID
November 3, 2020

  A week after NAFI CT Executive Director Lynn Bishop hosted an October event in which Gov. Ned Lamont and State Department of Children and Families Commissioner Vannessa Dorantes emphasized the vital role of nonprofits during the COVID-19 pandemic—especially foster families—the Governor announced $1 million in supplemental aid to support foster parents. In her role as President […]

Gov. Ned Lamont Thanks ‘Unsung Heroes’ of Connecticut Nonprofits
October 17, 2020

  Gov. Ned Lamont and state officials held a roundtable meeting Oct. 16 with members of the Children’s League of Connecticut (CLOC) to discuss challenges nonprofit service providers face amid COVID-19, followed by a news conference to acknowledge and thank the unsung heroes who work tirelessly to meet the needs of foster children and other young […]

NAFI CT Wins 2020 Top Workplaces Honors From Courant, Hearst
September 29, 2020

NAFI Connecticut Inc. has been honored as one of Connecticut’s Top Workplaces by both The Hartford Courant and Hearst Connecticut Media Group. This is the fifth consecutive year the Courant has singled out NAFI CT for fostering one of the state’s best work environments. Award-winning companies and organizations are chosen solely based on employee feedback […]

Lynn Bishop Named President of Children’s League of Connecticut
September 21, 2020

NAFI CT Executive Director Lynn Bishop has been appointed President of the Children’s League of Connecticut (CLOC). CLOC is composed of leaders from 11 nonprofits devoted to a shared mission of advocating for the best interests of children and families, including proper care of children and young adults with behavioral health challenges or developmental disabilities. […]

A Message from the President of NAFI/NFI
June 5, 2020

Dear NAFI/NFI Family, Friends and Board members, The nation was rocked and deeply saddened by the cruel killing of George Floyd by four Minneapolis police officers last week. We know that the horror of this senseless act speaks to the work ahead that needs to be done to confront and counter racism and injustice. It […]

NAFI’s Touchstone, MDFT Transform a Connecticut Girl’s Life
May 18, 2020

Alyssa Bomster was out with friends in November 2017 when a police stop involving an older friend driving without a license triggered her grief over the death of her cousin/best friend a day earlier. She had been drinking and the combination led her to confront police, resulting in her arrest for breach of peace. It […]

A Message From the Executive Director
March 18, 2020

As we navigate the crisis created by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, it’s vitally  important to stay connected, to create a sense of unity even amid the challenges of social distancing—and to interact in online forums like this one as a community of compassionate, caring citizens with the common goal of making the world around us […]

NAFI Recidivism Reduction Program Wins 2019 Spirit Of The Community Program Award
December 6, 2019

  The 2019 NAFI CT Spirit of the Community Program Award was given to a pioneering program designed to reduce recidivism for transitional age youth (ages 17-20) who have both a recent history of criminal involvement and mental health challenges. “We are wholeheartedly excited and appreciative for this recognition of MST – TAY,” NAFI CT […]

Abigail Okarmus Wins NAFI CT Spirit of the Community Award
November 21, 2019

  Abigail Okarmus, a Quality Assurance Coordinator with NAFI CT, received the Spirit of the Community award for Connecticut at the North American Family Institute’s recent annual conference. She was honored in part for her success in growing the NAFI CT outpatient clinic in Willimantic, which provides psychiatric and clinical counseling to children and adolescents […]

NAFI Connecticut Inc. Named a Top Workplace for 4th Consecutive Year
September 25, 2019

Only 60 Connecticut companies and organizations won 2019 Top Workplaces awards from The Hartford Courant and NAFI Connecticut Inc. is one of them—for a fourth consecutive year. “Being recognized as a Top Workplace for a fourth year in a row is very gratifying,” said Lynn Bishop, Executive Director for NAFI CT, the Farmington-based nonprofit organization […]

Clinical Social Worker of the Year Award for NAFI CT’s Stacey Shaia
July 18, 2019

  Stacey Shaia, LCSW, clinical director of NAFI CT’s Outpatient Clinic in Willimantic, CT, has been honored with the 2019 Clinical Social Worker of the Year Award from the Connecticut Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). “The Clinical Social Worker of the Year award is given annually to a clinical social worker […]

NAFI CT Opens Newest Program – Linking Youth to Natural Communities (LYNC)
February 12, 2019

NAFI CT is pleased to announce its newest program, Linking Youth to Natural Communities (LYNC). LYNC is a center-based program for court-involved youth and their families. LYNC staff will work with organizations local to the youth’s natural community to address the youth’s and family’s needs as well as provide an array of evidence-based and evidenced […]

2018 NAFI CT Wine and Beer Tasting
August 27, 2018

*Please note, tickets purchased online will be distributed at the door on the night of the event. Wine and Beer Tasting Regular Ticket $35.00 USDDesignated Driver $25.00 USD

NAFI CT is reaccredited by the Council on Accreditation
February 27, 2018

We are very proud to announce that NAFI Connecticut, Inc. has been reaccredited by the Council on Accreditation. Reaccreditation is a tremendous achievement that demonstrates that our organization is recognized as a provider that continues to successfully implement high performance standards and, as such, is delivering the highest quality services to all of its stakeholders. […]

The Connecticut Post Names NAFI Connecticut, Inc. a Top Workplace
October 23, 2017

Farmington, CT – NAFI Connecticut, Inc. has been awarded a 2017 Top Workplaces honor by The Connecticut Post. The Top Workplaces lists are based solely on the results of an employee feedback survey administered by Energage, LLC, a leading research firm that specializes in organizational health and workplace improvement. Several aspects of workplace culture were […]

The Hartford Courant Names NAFI Connecticut, Inc. A Top Workplace
October 23, 2017

Farmington, CT – NAFI Connecticut, Inc. has been awarded a 2017 Top Workplaces honor by The Hartford Courant. The Top Workplaces lists are based solely on the results of an employee feedback survey administered by Energage, LLC, a leading research firm that specializes in organizational health and workplace improvement. Several aspects of workplace culture were […]

Wine and Beer Tasting Tickets
August 15, 2017

*Please note, tickets purchased online will be distributed at the door on the night of the event.  Wine and Beer Tasting Regular Ticket $35.00 USDDesignated Driver $25.00 USD

Save the Date: The Spirit of Giving Wine & Beer Tasting Event
May 18, 2017

Please join us on September 29, 2017 for the Second Annual NAFI Connecticut, Inc. The Spirit of Giving Wine & Beer Tasting Event. All proceeds benefit the NAFI CT/Rhode Island Enrichment Fund. Every dollar of the this enrichment fund is allocated to enhancing the lives of those with whom we work by providing educational, recreational, vocational, […]

Two NAFI CT Therapists receive MST Sustained Excellence Awards
February 28, 2017

Farmington, CT – Two NAFI CT Therapists receive MST Sustained Excellence Awards Lisseth Jurado and Jasmine Iannotti, both therapists with the NAFI CT Multisystemic Therapy Program, have been awarded an MST Sustained Excellence award (an ESSY) in the category of Therapist Adherence. MST Services presents this award on an annual basis to therapists to provide […]

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