AGENCY TESTIMONY
Children's Center improvements and foster parent recruitment
0:13:11
ยท
78 sec
ACS has made significant improvements to the Children's Center and implemented strategies for foster parent recruitment, particularly for teens and large sibling groups.
- Most children spend fewer than 7 days at the Children's Center
- Recent renovations include a trauma-informed intake area, cell phone cafe, and family-friendly visiting area
- Comfort shop allows children to select items that make them comfortable
- Nearly 500 new foster homes recruited citywide in fiscal year 2024
Jess Dannhauser
0:13:11
ACS and our providers appreciate the anxiety and trauma that removal and placement into foster care can create for children and youth.
0:13:18
We know that it's critical for us to provide safe, stable placements for children in foster care.
0:13:23
While many children are placed directly into a foster home, including with kin, for others, this work starts at the Children's Center.
0:13:29
Most children who go to the Children's Center spend fewer than seven days there.
0:13:34
But we know that for some children and youth, the stays are longer, with about fifteen percent of youth remaining at the Children's Center for over thirty days.
0:13:41
Our teams at the Children's Center has worked tirelessly to enhance on-site programming, supports, and safety.
0:13:46
Most recently, we've renovated the intake area to be more trauma informed and welcoming, created a cell phone cafe, renovated the family visiting area to be more family friendly, and opened a comfort shop where children and youth can select the items that make them most comfortable, such as pajamas, stuffed animals, books, and sneakers, all age appropriate.
0:14:06
It is essential for us to continue to recruit foster parents, particularly for teens and large sibling groups.
0:14:12
We have worked closely with our providers to implement robust foster parent recruitment, support, and certification strategies.
0:14:18
In fiscal year twenty four, our providers recruited nearly 500 new foster homes citywide.
0:14:23
Once children are placed into foster care homes, it is essential that the children remain safe and well cared for.