GOAL: The goal of the program is to provide one hundred Department of Children and Families youth with capable, caring adult (over age 21) mentors. Research has shown that an adult mentor in a youth's life can enhance their educational goals, attainment of these goals, and increase the likelihood that they will avoid risk taking behaviors.

• The program recruits, screens, trains, matches and supervises 100 adult mentors who are matched with DCF youth from the ages of 10 - 18 + years old.
• Mentors are asked to commit to a year of meeting with a youth for one hour per week and to call the youth weekly.
• This program attained the original goal of the grant of thirty mentor-mentee matches that was not attained by any other DCF mentor program in the state.
• The program currently has mentors who have been with their mentees for over three years. Mentors are only asked to commit for one year to the program but many mentors have elected to stay with their matches.
• The mentors are expected to attend a once per month supervision meeting that occurs on the third Monday evening of the month.
• The mentors and mentees are invited to at least two major group activities per year including the holiday dinner and the mentor awards dinner.
• The mentors are given free tickets on a regular basis to area sports events, theater events, and community events.

A full-time Mentoring Program Coordinator, in New Haven staffs the program. The program has been seen as a model in the state and has been presented at a national conference, the National Independent Living Association Conference, the past three years in Atlanta, Georgia, Washington, D.C., and in August 2001,Orlando, FL.

FUTURE PLANS: The program was approached by DCF to expand to one hundred matches in the fiscal year, beginning June 30, 2000 to July 1, 2001, which was begun. The program was approached to increase activity in the Meriden and Middletown region. Federal dollars for mentoring programs were awarded to fund the expansion.

Post Legal Services

Post Legal Services at The Children's Community Programs have been in existence since at least 1974 when adoption files were closed in the state of Connecticut. When the legislation was enacted adoption records were sealed but adoptees over the age of eighteen were given the right to search for their biological parents through the agency that the adoption occurred. On October 1, 1995 the right to search was also given to the biological parents of adoptees over the age of eighteen.

GOAL: The goal of the Post Legal Services is to give the adoptee and biological parents a humane and supportive service during the stressful search process and to conduct all aspects of the service within the legislated codes.

• Adoptees who call for a search are asked to fill out a registry form and then the non-identifying information is compiled from their record. Adoptees in the local area are asked to come in to pick up their non-identifying information so that any of their questions can be answered and the expectations regarding a search can be discussed.
• Biological parents who call for a search are asked to fill out a registry form and then they are required by legislation to meet with a qualified counselor to discuss all aspects of the impact of a search on their lives and the adoptee's life. The counselor must determine that the search is in everyone's best interest before it can proceed.
• A search can last anywhere from a few days to over six months. A most recent search for a biological father took two years because he happened to be out of the county working for two years.
• Post Legal Services gets calls daily regarding information, searches, and support services to those who have conducted searches. Once the adoptee and/or biological parent has been found there can be a need for support services due to the outcome of the searches.
• The demand for services is constant with at least fifty searches, related services, and inquiries conducted in 1999, 2000, and 2001.
• The fees for the service have been kept to a minimum due to the agency's commitment to this so important follow-up to an adoption.
• The Children's Community Programs continues to maintain records back to 1944.

The Post Legal Services are conducted by Administrative Assistant, Rachael Barry, and qualified professionals who conduct searches on a per diem basis.

The Outreach, Tracking, & Reunification Program has been serving the juvenile justice population of Connecticut since February 1992 and is a fully funded grant program through the Department of Children and Families.

GOAL: The goal of the Outreach, Tracking, & Reunification program is to assist youth in transitioning back to the community from Connecticut Juvenile Training School and other residential placements and to reduce recidivism.

• The program maintains thirty-six slots for juveniles on parole, returning to the community from Connecticut Juvenile Training School and other residential placements.
• The juveniles can live in a large geographic region including but not limited to: New Haven, North Haven, East Haven, West Haven, Wallingford, Ansonia, Seymour, Shelton, Branford, Guilford, Madison, Clinton, Meriden, Middletown, Portland, etc.
• The program serves males and females aged 10 to 17 who are on parole and committed to the Department of Children and Families.
• The program statistics show that at least 85% of the youth do not return to placement while they are in the program.
• Youth are aided in returning to school, their families, recreation activities, and in the summer a job site.
• Parent liaison services are offered to the parents of the youth as well as a monthly parent's support group.
• The youth are required to attend a weekly group that focuses on anger management skills and other clinical services are offered and/or arranged.
• The program was expanded to provide weekend tracking in the New Haven area and this component of the program has been the most utilized. Youth are monitored when they are on weekend home passes while they are still in placement and remain with the same case manager when they are discharged from their placement and returned home.

A supervisor and four case managers staff this program.

FUTURE PLANS: The Outreach, Tracking, & Reunification Program will celebrate ten years of service to youth in the state of Connecticut.

Therapeutic Foster Care Program

The Children's Community Programs Therapeutic Foster Care Program has been serving foster children for over twenty years. The Department of Children and Families funds the program on a per diem contractual basis. The philosophy of the Therapeutic Foster Care Program is that children deserve the psychological and developmental advantage of living in the least restrictive environment.

GOAL: The goal of the Therapeutic Foster Care Program is to recruit, screen, train, approve, and supervise families who can provide a home and therapeutic environment for children with special needs.

• The program currently has 145 children in placement.
• The program currently has 125 approved therapeutic foster care homes.
• The addition of a full-time recruiter, Jeanette Sykes, in November of 2000 has significantly expanded the program. There has been an increase of 41 families recruited and approved in just over a year.
• The retention rate of foster families is very high with several of the foster homes remaining with the program for almost twenty years.
• The Children's Community Programs Therapeutic Foster Care Program is currently the largest therapeutic foster care program in Connecticut.
• The foster parents are supported daily by telephone calls and weekly or bi-weekly by home visits by the therapists.
• The children receive therapy services through the program or they are referred to services in the community.
• The program provides psychiatric medication evaluation services with a psychiatrist that assesses the children at the program site.

Three Program Supervisors and over twenty therapeutic foster care therapists staff the program.

Foster Care Recruitment

The Children's Community Programs Therapeutic Foster Care Program has recently enhanced the recruitment aspects of the program by hiring a full-time Program Supervisor whose primary responsibility is recruitment and retention of foster parents.

GOAL: The goal of the Foster Care Recruiter is to recruit, screen, train, approve and supervise families who can provide a home and therapeutic environment for children with special needs.

• The program currently has 152 children in placement.
• The program currently has 137 approved therapeutic foster care homes.
• The program is enhancing the training of pre-approved families to include the DCF approved PRIDE TRAINING and the foster care recruiter will be initiates this training.
• The approval and re-approval process has been enhanced by new procedures initiated by the Program Supervisor.

Foster and Adoptive Support Team

The Foster and Adoptive Support Team (FAST) was initiated as a program in January 2001 and is fully funded by a grant from the Department of Children and Families. The philosophy of the FAST Program is that children deserve the psychological and developmental advantage of living in the least restrictive environment and to be maintained in that environment if at all possible.

GOAL: The goal of the FAST Program is to provide support services to DCF foster homes to maintain the children in the foster home and to maintain the foster parents as foster parents.

• The program currently has 36 slots for foster children and foster families who are serviced for 90 days.
• The retention rate of the DCF foster families served is very high at 100%.
• The foster parents are supported daily by telephone calls and weekly or bi-weekly by home visits by the case managers with 24-hour on-call services also provided to the families.
• The children receive respite services through the program for brief respites to weeklong respites in qualified therapeutic foster care homes.
• The program provides creative wraparound services to assist in maintaining placements including but not limited to respite, arranging clinical services, recreational services, etc. - any service or support that will enhance the permanency of the placement.

The FAST Program has one supervisor and three case managers.

FUTURE PLANS: The FAST Program has been providing services for one year and is still in the assessment process of the service. At this point the DCF foster parents have been maintained at 100% and the children have been maintained in the placement over 80% of the time when the FAST Program was contacted in an appropriate amount of time for the need for service.