The Placement Services Department provides services for families and children who require separation in order to protect their child's health, safety and well-being.

 

    Short-term Emergency Shelter Care (up to 30 days) is available 24 hours per day for children needing immediate protection while the family's situation and child's needs are being evaluated. Placement may be recommended at the completion of the evaluation if all efforts to ensure the child's protection within the family have failed.

Once placement occurs, casework services focus on correcting through counseling, education, and the use of community resources conditions necessitating the placement. The goal is to reunite the family at the earliest possible time.

 

    During child's placement, Reunification Services are provided. If the child is returned home, services are provided to ensure maintenance of the family unit. With parental participation, a plan is developed to address the child's right to a stable, permanent home.

 

    The Agency offers a variety of temporary placement resources. For those who can benefit from a family living experience, Foster Family Care is available through this agency's own studied approved, and supervised foster homes, as well as through private foster care agencies.

 

    Group Residential Care is provided to children whose special needs cannot be met by a family living experience. Independent Living Services are available to prepare older youth for self-sufficiency; job readiness and life skills training are provided, along with counseling services.

 

    When children and their families cannot be reunited, Adoption Services provide the child with a permanent home and new legal parentage. Placement is supervised until the adoption is finalized. Following finalization, Post Adoptive Services offer adoptive families, adoptees, and birth parents professional assessment, counseling, and search & information services. The agency has home finding services to recruit, train and study foster and adoptive family resources. The One Church, One Child program recruits African American families to become adoptive parents.

 

    Although most expectant parents decide to keep their child, Options Counseling offers them voluntary services to explore alternatives ( temporary foster care, pre-adoptive foster care and adoption services ) concerning their expected child.