Every Child Deserves a Loving Home
Home and family are the center of every child’s life. But what happens if that center falls apart? Who do children turn to? That’s where we enter. Our Family Foster Care program provides safe and nurturing care in the homes of trained foster parents to children who temporarily cannot be with their birth families. At a time when it is needed most, we provide the caring support a child needs and, most importantly, deserves.
Grounded in our roots as an orphanage founded in 1831, we have been looking after and caring for children who have been unable to live with their parents for more than 185 years – offering the commitment, encouragement, and resources that help guide a child’s and his/her family’s future toward a positive path. While working to ensure that the comprehensive therapeutic and educational needs of children are being met during this traumatic time in their lives, we concurrently work with birth parents to get them the help they need so they can be reunited with their children.
Supporting Each Child’s Well-Being
Working together, our team of social workers and other trained staff make sure each child has the individualized support needed to get through this difficult time and cope with the impact of possible parental abuse or neglect. We place children with families in their own communities —with relatives or close family friends whenever possible — to provide continuity in their daily lives and so they can stay in the same school with people they know. And we provide and link children with everything from individual counseling and educational tutoring to behavioral supports and recreational activities to support their well-being.
We recognize the importance of well-informed, well-trained caregivers who can nurture and support children and teens. Our foster parents are part of a support team that makes sure everything possible is being done to help children with all their needs – healthcare, education, social activities, confidence-building. Foster parents receive intensive training so they understand how children respond to trauma and how to nurture healthy relationships. And we back them up — we can be reached 24/7 to help deal with any issue that comes up.
Planning for the Future
From the moment a child comes into our care, we immediately begin to work toward permanency – a plan for a permanent home for every child. Family team conferences – which include each child (when old enough), birth parents and foster parents – to create a plan for support and permanency occur within the first week of placement. And while we support children in foster homes, we work intensively with birth parents to get them the help they need to be reunited with their children – anger management training, domestic violence support, substance abuse counseling. We offer additional assistance through the use of various evidence-based practice models to tailor the services and supports we offer.
All of our efforts have resulted in a history of success, reunified healthy families, stronger connections to community networks and lasting relationships with foster parents. In fact, we have been ranked as a citywide leader by New York City for reaching 100% of our goals in creating permanent and kin/relative connections for children in foster care with approximately 65% of our families achieving reunification after working diligently with our team.
And our work doesn’t stop when families are back together. We also provide transitional and continuing support to birth families to ensure bumps in the road with reunification are addressed in real time.
Specialized Care for Teens that Need It Most
Our Treatment Foster Care Oregon Program (TFCO) is a specialized foster care program that supports youth ages 12 to 17 with significant behavioral or mental health challenges. TFCO is an evidence-based treatment program based on many years of research that helps to both promote and support a teen’s relationship with his/her family. Because TFCO values each family’s potential to provide guidance and support for their child’s positive adjustment, this treatment program helps us to provide family-driven care that works toward the important goal of reunification. Though this model, we help break down any road blocks to communication between teens and their parents, and teach families various parenting strategies that support and guide a teen’s positive behaviors. Caseworkers are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for questions, consultation and support.
Adoption: Creating New Families
While we make every effort to reunite children with their birth parents, sometimes, birth families cannot give their children a healthy, safe and permanent home. When this is the case, we find loving adoptive homes for children— no matter their age. In fact, most children in our program who cannot be reunited with their birth families are adopted by foster parents with whom they have been with for an extended period of time and already have an established, loving relationship.
In preparation for adoption, we make sure that children and their new families have all the supports they need to stay on track in school, in good health, make friends and achieve their dreams and goals.