License families and individuals for regular foster care, kinship, respite, adoptions certifications and therapeutic care. Services include ongoing training, monthly home visits, events, and support groups.

A New Leaf - Foster Care Programs | A New Leaf - Foster Care Programs

Arrangements in which the full time care, supervision, nurturing and protection of a minor child is the responsibility of a grandparent, aunt, uncle or other relative, member of the child’s tribe or clan, godparent, stepparent, friend of family or another adult who has a long-standing relationship with the child or the family in situations where the child cannot live with his or her parents. Types of kinship care include informal agreements between family members or with a non-relative; kinship caregiver arrangements in which the caregiver has physical custody but the children’s protective services agency has legal custody; kinship guardian arrangements in which the caregiver has both legal and physical custody; and kinship foster care in which the caregiver is a licensed foster parent and has physical custody of the child while the children’s protective agency has legal custody.

Kinship Care

Agency-supervised private family homes in which foster parents have been trained to provide individualized, structured services in a safe, nurturing family living environment for children and adolescents with significant emotional or behavioral problems who require a higher level of care than is found in a conventional foster home but do not require placement in a more restrictive setting. Therapeutic foster parents receive special training in mental health issues, behavior management and parenting techniques; and implement the in-home portion of the treatment plan with close supervision and support. They serve as integral members of the team of professionals providing services for the child, get the child to therapy and other treatment appointments, write daily notes about interventions and attend treatment team meetings. Therapeutic foster care is considered the least restrictive out-of-home placement for children with severe emotional disorders.

Therapeutic Foster Homes

Programs that identify and enlist people who are willing to provide foster care for dependent children who have been removed from their homes because of abuse, neglect or abandonment and need an alternative family living arrangement, or for children or adults with developmental disabilities, sensory impairments, physical disabilities, emotional problems or multiple disabilities who are unable to live with their birth families or in an independent setting. Programs that recruit families to provide foster care for children and adults with disabilities are generally also responsible for training, certifying and monitoring placements in family homes and for providing support for the family and the individual(s) with disabilities who live with them.

Foster Parent/Family Recruitment

Programs that link individuals who are in need of alternative living arrangements with appropriate private family homes that are licensed to provide foster care. Licensing requirements vary from state to state and, in some situations, licensing is not required at all. Programs that provide placement services for children and adults with disabilities are generally also responsible for recruiting, training, certifying and monitoring placements in family homes and for providing support for the family and the individual(s) with disabilities who live with them.

Foster Home Placement

Provides information, education, resource referrals, and other services for households with children headed by grandparents or other relatives. Services include legal assistance, foster licensing and/or adoption support, guardianship clinics, support groups, navigation support, and assistance for kinship caregivers of children with incarcerated parents.

Arizona Kinship Support Services | Arizona Kinship Support Services

Programs that handle adoptions in which the birth parent rights are terminated and a kinship caregiver (grandparents, aunts and uncles or other relatives, members of a child’s tribe or clan, godparents, stepparents, neighbors, friends of the family or other adults who can serve as "family") becomes the child’s legal parent.

Kinship Adoption

Mutual support groups whose members are individuals who have adopted a child or are considering or in the process of adoption, birth parents who relinquished a child for adoption, people who were, themselves adopted, foster care providers, children in foster care, kinship caregivers (paternal or maternal grandparents, aunts, uncles and other family members, members of a child's tribe or clan, godparents, stepparents, neighbors, friends of the family or other adults who can serve as "family"), children cared for by relatives under a formal or informal kinship care arrangement and/or adults who, as children, were raised in foster or kinship care. Groups may also be structured for adoptees, siblings and/or birth parents who have been reunited; older kinship caregivers who have taken on an unexpected parenting role later in life; and people who have other kinship issues, e.g., grandparents and other relatives who have been denied access to a grandchild or other youngster due to a death or divorce in the child's family. Meeting formats may include in-person, telephone or Internet options.

Adoption and Foster/Kinship Care Support Groups

Programs that accept new or used books, magazines and other reading materials and keep them for use in their own program or donate them to libraries, schools and other community agencies for their own use or for distribution to people they serve.