Foster Care and Adoption Services

Helping a child may also mean finding a loving, caring, and safe environment outside of the home. When this is the case, our Foster Care program ensures that there are licensed family homes, on a temporary basis, for children in crisis. Sometimes, foster care is a temporary arrangement while the parents and children receive the counseling, services, and support that they need to succeed as a family unit. At other times, foster care can be a stepping stone to a warm and loving adoptive home.

Each year, Hephzibah foster parents open their homes - and their hearts - to children in need of loving homes. When returning home to their biological parents isn't an option, many of these children form permanent families with their foster parents through Hephzibah adoptions.

Hephzibah’s Foster Care Support Services program was established in 2002 to help traumatized children make a successful transition from Hephzibah’s Group Homes into loving foster and adoptive homes. To help ensure the success of each placement, Hephzibah’s Foster Care Team provides an extensive array of foster care support and stabilization services.

Foster Care Support Services include:

• The Journey Program – An internship program for families preparing to foster parent or adopt a child who has been traumatized by neglect, abuse, or multiple placements.
• Stayin’ Put – A home-based support group for children and foster parents to discuss the ups and downs of placement and to work towards permanency.
• Makin’ the Grade – An academic support group that focuses on a foster child’s academic and social behaviors within the context of the school setting.
• In-home consultation and support for families
• Respite services
• Training sessions on foster parenting and child management techniques
• Support group meetings for foster parents
• Individual foster parent consultations for foster parents grappling with the challenges of parenting children who have been traumatized by neglect or abuse
• Parenting groups for biological family members, facilitated by a foster care specialist

Hephzibah's foster care program is in need of loving homes to care for our children. For more information, please contact Hephzibah's Family Based Services office at 708-649-7140.

Amy O'Rourke
Foster Care Services Coordinator