WE OFFER A RANGE OF SERVICES TO CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
Our services promote health and well-being and facilitate the restoring of harmony and balance to the family unit.
The Family Enhancement Program is designed to assist families in order to prevent undue stress that may lead to a family breakdown, with the ultimate goal of keeping the family together. The Family Enhancement Program is a voluntary front-line in-home support and community-based program. It is aimed at prevention by supporting families early, in their home and community to strengthen and improve their health and well-being.
There are different types of supports that Family Enhancement offers:
- Parent Support Education, which involves working with parents individually in their home to enhance their parenting skills and abilities, and to build on their existing strengths.
- Supported Family Time, which involves supporting parents who have children in care of the agency by engaging them in a gradual resumption of their role as the caregiver to their children in order to facilitate reunification. Individual support is provided to the family to work on the identified concerns and enhance the parent’s competencies and strengths.
- Emergency Support, which in times of crisis the agency provides families with support in different capacities.
The team works with a variety of issues including drug and alcohol abuse/addictions, domestic violence, housing issues, and advocacy. Various services are offered to families based on their individual needs.
Permanency Planning in child welfare can have different meanings depending on the child, their family and the circumstances of their case. Child welfare professionals first focus on supporting and stabilizing a family to prevent a child from coming into the care. Reunification with a family is the preferred outcome for children who are removed from their homes.
Family Support Services are needed when an increased level of supervision in the home is necessary to keep the children safe, or when a child or youth needs to be placed outside of the home for their protection. The Family Services Unit works with families that require support to safely care for their children.
One of the most crucial areas of service is foster care. Our agency recruits a diverse group of foster families and we strive to train our families to be culturally sensitive and interactive. Our foster families engage with the agency not only on a daily basis but through a variety of events the agency hosts throughout the year that are geared toward building family relationship between the children, biological families and foster families.
The agency recruits a large number of service providers that work one on one with families and children. The agency provides the opportunity for families and foster families to identify potential support workers from their personal network who have already development a trusting relationship with those they service. The agency also aims to recruit trained and skilled support workers who are able to connect well with parents and children.
