| Post-Adoption Services Casey Family Services has taken the lead in providing ongoing services to families and children before, during and after adoption papers are signed. These services include comprehensive counseling, support groups, case management and educational and advocacy services to families and individuals who have adopted children and need assistance in strengthening and preserving the family. Casey Family Services convened the first national Post-Adoption Services conference in December 2000 and developed the Casey Center for Effective Child Welfare Policy and Practice to promote and share information about post-adoption services. Family Support - Family Reunification - Family reunification services attempt to reunite children in out-of-home care with their birth families or extended families of origin. Eligible children referred to Casey Family Services are those placed in state foster homes or residential treatment facilities with a permanency plan that calls for reunification, but who require more services and support than the state is able to provide.
- Family Preservation - Family preservation services offer family-centered, home-based counseling and support to help struggling families remain intact, thereby preventing the need for out-of-home placements. Casey Family Services works closely with community organizations such as hospitals, schools, and local service agencies that identify families experiencing extreme pressures.
- Family Resource Centers - Working in collaboration with the grant-making arm of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Casey Family Services has established Family Resource Centers in four of our divisions. We are creating community partnerships, new models of service delivery, and new ways to involve families and communities in the decision-making processes. Casey Family Services is providing such services as G.E.D. classes, financial literacy, parenting training, homework clubs, after-school activities and other supports for families and children through these resource centers.
- Family Advocacy and Support - Family Advocacy and Support has been designed in conjunction with Vermont's Department of Social Services to provide a single point of access for families in poverty who are seeking to resolve child development and neglect issues. Based at the Waterbury office of Casey's Vermont Division, this program strives to integrate service delivery, incorporate the values and assets of the community and maximize family strengths.
- Family Connections - Targeting families infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, this program provides the opportunity and support parents need to provide a stable home environment for their children and to plan for their children's care in the future. Without such planning, arrangements for permanence are often made only after a parent dies, at the very time when the child is grief-stricken, confused, afraid and least able to cope. Based in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Family Connections promotes innovative activities that help strengthen relationships between parents, future guardians and children, thus easing the transition from birth parent into guardian care. The program also seeks to inform and influence the public policy debates surrounding HIV/AIDS.
- Teen Parents and Young Families - The Teen Parent and Young Families program is located in Maryland's Historic East Baltimore neighborhood, where it is helping to develop a collaborative network of community-based services to assist adolescents and young parents. The services, including family advocacy and support, crisis intervention, case management, emergency response, short-term counseling and intensive family preservation services, are designed to help disadvantaged, single teen parents cope with the myriad problems that confront them and avoid out-of-home placement for their children.
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