Parenting for Connection:
A Relational Health Toolkit
health begins with relationships
The Resilience Through Relationships Initiative was created to address a critical gap in how we support children and families impacted by disrupted caregiving — including parental substance misuse, parental mental illness, and neglect. While we know that safe, stable, and nurturing relationships are the most powerful buffer against trauma, there has historically been limited training, guidance, and practical tools focused specifically on strengthening caregiver–child relationships in these contexts.
Through this initiative, we established a national program dedicated to promoting resilience through caregiving relationships. We convened a national Advisory Board of experts and developed a comprehensive set of resources designed to help both professionals and caregivers better understand disrupted caregiving and actively support healing through connection.
These materials were designed not only for mental health professionals, but also for medical professionals, substance use counselors, and anyone who is parenting a child whether that be parents, grandparents, foster parents, or other caregiver. Over the course of the project, we provided large-scale in-person and virtual trainings to tens of thousands of professionals and caregivers across medical, mental health, and substance use treatment settings. In doing so, we strengthened workforce capacity to recognize the impact of disrupted caregiving and to actively promote relational health as a pathway to resilience. Collectively, this initiative has expanded access to practical, evidence-informed tools that empower caregivers, enhance professional competency, and ultimately strengthen the parent–child relationships that protect children from the lasting effects of adversity. By investing in caregivers, we have helped build stronger families — and more resilient communities — nationwide.
Toni, the original Program Director of the Resilience Through Relationships Initiative, was a champion for the voice of families across all of her work in a variety of professional roles. She imparted her values into each aspect of our programming.
Toni’s Voice is our promise to incorporate her core values into all facets of our center and mission: love and support for families, emphasizing the power of hope, a foundational belief in the philosophy of co-creation, or "not about us without us,” a commitment to services and interventions that are effective, and the importance of kindness in all our professional collaborations.
