Contact: Jim Isenberg, Director 
Department of Strategic Planning, Development and Training
917 940-8152

NAFI/NFI is a Massachusetts-based, nonprofit human service agency that operates a coordinated network of over 90 community-based schools and programs from Maine to Florida. NAFI/NFI's services are driven by the agency's commitment to develop normative communities that empower its members to become partners and active participants in shaping their mission and culture.

Since the mid-1990s, NAFI/NFI's Training and Consulting Group has been in the forefront of providing training and consulting to public and private organizations in the field of human services. The group has helped many agencies, schools and organizations develop a philosophical and practical framework in which to establish and monitor positive, mission-driven norms that shape their cultures. Additionally, the training group provides technical assistance to organizations facing challenges in managed care, education, leadership, organizational commitment and their overall quality of service. NAFI/NFI has also assisted organizations in such areas as homelessness, mental health, hospital care, police community training, adult corrections and juvenile justice. NAFI/NFI designs each training to fit the specific needs of the organizations it serves.

The following are examples of NAFI/NFI’s Training and Consulting Projects:

Youth & Police Initiative

The Youth & Police Initiative (YPI) is a training created by NAFI/NFI to enhance police officers understanding of the beliefs, values, and experiences of local youth, while ensuring that youth develop a genuine regard for the challenges that police officers face on the job. Within this context, YPI provides structured dialogue, team building and role playing scenarios that allow all participants—youth and police—to tackle the real and hard issues of crime prevention and community policing. Embedded in this approach is building stronger relationships with minority communities with particular focus on adolescent teens from the Latino, Asian and African American communities. Over the past 48 months, NAFI has given this intensive, scenario-based training to over 700 police officers now serving the city of Baltimore, all of the 2005 recruits for the Boston Police Department, as well as patrol officers from the White Plains and Yonkers, New York Police Departments (see link below under “Resources” for a more detailed description).

New Hampshire Division of Children, Youth and Families
NAFI/NFI is the contracted vendor of the New Hampshire Division of Children, Youth and Families, to develop and implement an eight-week, core curriculum for all state youth workers in New Hampshire. The trainings are offered four times a year and are also open to all private vendors working with children, youth and families in the state. Curriculum competencies span over twenty subjects.

Northwestern Human Services, Pennsylvania
NAFI/NFI created a multi-phased Normative approach training for Northwestern Human Services Academy, a 242-bed school for adjudicated adolescents, to help management and staff build a mission-driven program with a capacity to create and implement an ongoing training curriculum for new employees.

Camp Sweeney, California
NAFI/NFI contracted with the County of Alameda (CA) Probation Department to help its troubled youth detention facility and school build a positive Normative environment.Training focused on creating a mission-driven culture of open communication, to empower residents and staff to develop positive, pro-social norms to enhance learning and growth.

Sexually Aggressive Youth - Training for Staff
NAFI/NFI conducted an extensive, statewide training in New York to teach caretakers of sexually aggressive youth to work effectively with this challenging population.

Westhab
NAFI/NFI spent two years working with this agency in Westchester County, New York. Westhab manages shelters for the area's homeless families and adults. NAFI/NFI helped Westhab to create Normative communities within its residential facilities. Emphasis was placed on developing after-school programs for youth. NAFI/NFI’s work included the implementation of a Needs Assessment, collaborative planning and extensive training, and the development of an in-house trainer body to perpetuate the agency's success.

Police Corps
NAFI/NFI has played an important role in helping Police Corps, a national organization committed to the advanced training of college-educated cadets who will serve on community patrol, develop a broad network of training academies. Graduates receive special training that emphasizes leadership, integrity and effective communication and are then deployed to work with youth and families in high-need neighborhoods throughout the country.

School Programs
NAFI/NFI has partnered with Boys & Girls Harbor, a leading social services agency in Harlem, New York, to operate a high-impact school for suspended students reentering the New York City public schools. NAFI/NFI's role has been to train teachers and counseling staff to form a Normative community where students realize their role in the school’s success. We also have provided consultation to other large public school systems including New York City and Boston.

Resources 

Youth & Police Initiative Brochure Building Normative Communities: An Overview
Leadership Quotes
Changing the Culture of Homeless Shelters