Specifications include, but are not limited to: A. Contractor shall use Homebuilders® model which is an evidence-based model that uses time-limited intensive counseling, in-home crisis intervention, life-skills building, support services, and referrals to resources to help strengthen families and prevent out-of-home placement of children. Contractor services must promote the safety of all family members while helping the family learn how to stay together successfully. The goal is safely keeping children, when possible, with their families and preventing unnecessary out-of-home placement by providing intensive, on-site intervention, and teaching families new problem-solving skills to prevent future crisis. Contractor shall include the family in assessment, goal setting and treatment planning. B. Contractor shall provide services to families with children from birth to seventeen (17) years old who are at imminent risk of an out-of-home placement, including post adoption situations. It also may include, under certain circumstances, families who have already experienced an out-of-home placement and reunification is planned. Exceptions may also be approved by DCFS In-Home Program Manager or designee, on a case by case basis, when IFS would prevent a child from multiple placement disruptions. C. The Contractor’s therapist shall provide a wide range of counseling services, using research-based motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral interventions to increase life skills and improve individual and family functioning. In addition, the therapist shall assist families enhance their social support network and access basic needs such as food, shelter, and clothing. Services must be intensive and individualized specifically to the client’s needs. These services must be delivered within a trauma-informed care network and providers must be well versed in the impact trauma has on family dynamics. In-home prevention cases often require activities surrounding improving the safety of the home, supervision of the children, addressing parental depression and/or alcohol and substance abuse, and helping families access community supports. Reunification cases often require activities related to helping the parent prepare for the child to come back home, such as finding childcare and re-enrolling in school, and helping the family adjust to living together again. D. Contractor shall cultivate relationships with other community providers for the purpose of helping families access community supports. E. Contractor shall accept referrals by the DCFS family service worker. Contractor shall work with the DCFS County Supervisor or designee to determine appropriateness of referral, using Arkansas’s definition of “candidate for foster care” and the referral criteria set by HomeBuilders®.