The Family Project
Box 453007
UNLV
4505 Maryland Parkway
Las Vegas, NV 89154-3007
Phone: (702) 895-4796

What We Do
Functional Family Therapy
Current Projects
Meet Our Staff

The Family Project is a partnership between the Clark County Department of Family and Youth Services and UNLV to provide counseling to families and youths referred by Juvenile Probation and Juvenile Court judges.

The Family Project is the national center for the study, training, and delivery of Functional Family Therapy. The partnership between UNLV and the Department of Family and Youth Services (DFYS) also serves as a national model for collaborative delivery that combines the family therapists from UNLV and DFYS into a single, integrated family counseling service.

The Family Project exclusively uses Functional Family Therapy (FFT), a well-documented counseling program that has been applied successfully to a wide range of problem youth and their families in various contexts. FFT is an empirically grounded prevention and intervention program that targets young people between the ages of 11 and 18. FFT is a short-therapy that usually lasts 12 to 18 one-hour sessions. Because it is short term, the work is intense and highly focused, involving all members of the family of an at-risk adolescent.

The Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has designated Functional Family Therapy as one of only 10 "Blueprint" programs. FFT projects are now being conducted in more than 25 states.

You can learn more about Functional Family Therapy at:

• Functional Family Therapy Website
• Blueprints for Violence Prevention

The Family Project currently works with Dr. James Alexander of the University of Utah and Dr. Tom Sexton of Indiana University on studies regarding engagement and retention of clients. Other projects include examining recidivism rates in Functional Family Therapy compared to other therapies.

The Coordinator of the Family Project is Nancy Ostrom, who holds a Master of Arts degree in Counseling from UNLV. Ms. Ostrom is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the State of Nevada. She has been with the Family Project since its inception in 1997. In addition to administering the Family Project, she also sees clients and supervises UNLV Counseling interns who work in the program.