Family Works Services

In addition to providing treatment foster care, Family Works offers the following services:

Intensive Treatment Foster Care: A Higher level of Care for Children and Adolescents who Present More Challenging Issues and Behaviors

This level is appropriate for youth who:

• Require a very high level of supervision
• Have demonstrated sexually inappropriate behaviors
• Need alternative education, part-time schooling or day treatment or have been expelled from public school
• Carry multiple mental health diagnoses and/or severe emotional or behavior disabilities
• Are teen-aged mothers who have their child(ren) in care with them
• Have complex medical needs
• Have experienced several previous out-of-home placements
• Present extreme behaviors, such as fire-setting, cruelty to animals, or excessive tantrums
• Are at high risk for institutional care and/or are now returning to the community from institutional care

Intensive Treatment Foster Care provides increased supervision, at least one full-time treatment parent, weekly staff visits, monthly progress reports and team meetings (if necessary), and additional respite days.

Family Group Conferencing: A Strategy for Building Community, Shortening Lengths of Stay, and Developing Long-term Stability

It's no secret that people get along best in this world when they have the active support of friends, relatives, and neighbors. Often children who find their way into "the system" are lacking effective support. If they are placed out of their homes they often return to a situation similar to the one they left -- a marginal and sometimes even stressful support system.

• Family group conferencing brings people together for a meeting, people who are likely to be part of a child's ongoing support system. The family's relatives, friends, and supportive community members are invited, as well as service providers.
• These meetings typically last 3-5 hours. Strengths are identified, concerns are raised, and a plan is developed, with everyone's active participation, to help head us in the right direction.
• Prior to the meeting those organizing the meeting get-together with participants to inform them all of the process. People arrive at the meeting familiar with the process.

Family group conferencing is effective because it engages people in ways that they have rarely, if ever, been engaged before. They feel that their participation and opinions are valued. They are energized to continue active and helpful involvement in the future, especially when supported by staff of all organizations involved in the family's life.

Family group conferencing has the potential to have a huge impact on the success of an out of home placement. It can shorten the stay and increase the likelihood of success and stability after the child leaves placement.

Respite Services - Helping Parents and Foster Parents Cope with Challenging Kids

We can help you with respite care for children in your system. Occasionally other agencies in the vicinity of our foster homes have families needing respite care and no options are available at the time. If there are Family Works treatment foster homes in your area, we may have openings that allow us to provide that respite. We also have the ability to provide emergency as well as ongoing respite services to county and state agencies, subject to availability. In some instances, offering regular respite breaks has made it possible to keep families intact.

We have attached a rate sheet outlining the costs for this service. If you would like to explore using Family Works respite services, please call our Madison office (608.233.9204) and speak with Connie (ext. 26) or Joy (ext. 22).

Support Services to the Child's Family

Family Works is able to provide a variety of support services to the child's family, including regular visits to the home to provide education and consultation; accessibility by phone when situations or crises arise; development and implementation of a treatment plan; coordination of a community of support; and written reports. This interaction is much the same as the support provided to our treatment foster families. The frequency/intensity of various elements of this service may be negotiated and the fee adjusted accordingly.

Supervision of Home Visits

Family Works is able to arrange and personally monitor visits between parents, guardians, or other relatives when the children are placed in our care or in the other out-of-home placements. We provide a written summary of each visit, including who attended, the nature of the interaction, strengths of individual members of the group, issues and concerns that may have arisen, and recommendations for further action on the part of the group and agency staff.

Family or Kinship Care Services: Maintaining Children in Their Current Settings Through Intensive Support Services

Among the key components underlying the success of our treatment foster care program is the support system created for the child and treatment family. This system, comprised of social work staff and other treatment families in similar situations, makes it possible for families to maintain when, without that assistance and camaraderie, they would likely fail.

In this program Family Works staff is assigned to a family identified by the contracting agency (either the child's family of origin, adoptive family, or relatives). We then provide the services most typically provided to our treatment foster families, including

• regular (twice monthly) meetings with social work staff,
• 24 hour access to back-up staff,
• support network,
• educational opportunities and related educational materials,
• and (within some limits) crisis intervention.

Outcome: Supporting and maintaining the child in the most natural and least restrictive setting – that of his or her family or extended family.

Customized Services

We would like to work with any county and state agency to develop new ways of strengthening a child’s community of support and helping children reach permanence. Please contact us to brainstorm how we might help you help kids.