Resource Library

Spending time outdoors is one of the most overlooked yet generative ways to support mental health. In an era of heavy screen use and overburdened schedules, it takes great intention to partake of nature. Yet, with the benefits so clear, making a daily habit of being outside offers easy access to profound gains in flourishing.

Limiting screens for your family doesn’t have to an all-or-nothing approach. Numerous stories have found that even relatively small cuts make a really noticeable difference – and these differences have lasting effects.

Phones and apps are designed to grab your attention. Create simple boundaries for more focus, better sleep and more space for the things that matter most to you. Choose from the ideas below to create a tech rule for yourself that you and your parents will agree on.

We all want to fill our summer with good things. It’s easy to imagine, as one activity is added after another, that each of these good opportunities piles more good into our summer. Yet, the reality is that so often as we do this, our lives become unintentionally overscheduled, leaving our days crammed and our spirits exhausted. Sometimes, in … Read more

Explore the Rationale, Purpose and Vision of the CAFO Family Institute.

God designed us so that we grow and come alive as integrated beings – mind, body and spirit. As we engage the body in vigorous activity or even gentle movement, our mind, our emotions, and our spirit are more alert, more agile, and more well-off. This resource includes some sensible, easy ways to increase physical … Read more

The Scripture communicates that sleep is a gift from God, which we are invited to receive as part of a trusting relationship with God. We sleep knowing God doesn’t. This resource provides practical steps for how we can improve our sleep and help our children improve theirs.

Nutrition and mental health interact intimately. Across the lifespan, the developing human brain is profoundly impacted by what we eat. This resource provides research-based steps you can take that really make a difference in physical, mental and emotional health as it relates to healthy eating habits.

For those interested in current developments in trauma-related research and how it may intersect with their day-to-day work, the CAFO Institute for Family-Centered Healing & Health has created this collaborative review working document of current trauma research. Trauma-informed care is an emerging and dynamic field. It is rich in opportunity for fresh exploration, discovery, application … Read more

Measures of mental health have dropped sharply in Western nations over the past decade, especially among youth. This era is marked by dis-integration, felt from the level of the individual soul to age-old institutions to the level of national and global affairs. Amid such fracturing, very ordinary Christian practices offer extraordinary gifts.  They are graces — both … Read more

The Institute for Family-Centered Healing & Health will address the deeply-felt needs of foster and adoptive parents to nurture the healing and health of their children, rooted in Scripture and the best available research.