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Family Preservation Program
ESS’ Family Preservation Program works with 105
families in the Mott Haven section of the South Bronx. Our goal is to
avert foster care placement for 200-300 children and teens, and we also
help with children’s transitions from foster care back to family
caretakers. Our number one priority is to ensure the safety of all children
in the household by addressing risk factors before the home environment
tips toward child abuse or neglect. Examples of risk factors we monitor
and act on are health, education, housing situation, parenting skills,
communication problems, abuse, and mental health concerns.
We teach and work with the family over an extended
period (20-30 months) so that all members are strengthened sufficiently
to remain a family. Through the provision of intensive casework services
for each family, we assess risks, identify needs, develop a service
plan, provide or coordinate direct services, counsel and mentor both
individuals and the family, and monitor or intervene as necessary. We
help families obtain health care coverage, secure adequate housing,
and determine children’s educational needs. We teach 16-week parenting
skills workshops and refer family members to appropriate community providers
when indicators of domestic violence or substance abuse are recognized.
ESS is proud of our 97% success rate in keeping families
intact, achieved by dedicated work in support of stabilizing home environments
and strengthening family relationships.
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Foster Boarding Home and Adoption Program
ESS provides 500 children from birth through twenty
years of age with loving and nurturing foster care. Based on city referrals,
ESS places children who were living in unsafe home situations with foster
parents who were recruited, trained, and qualified by ESS. Many children
will be returned to their biological families once their parents have
addressed issues that led to placement, such as drug/alcohol rehab,
anger management, housing, parenting skills training, or domestic violence
therapy; others will be adopted by foster parents who open their homes
and hearts to a new family member. ESS’ scope of foster care services
includes care for 25 children with special medical needs (such as HIV).
Although we continue to care for children city wide, new foster care
placements are focused in two Community Districts in the South Bronx
(1, 3) and four in Manhattan (4, 5, 7, 9), per city contracts under
the Neighborhood-Based Philosophy that require children to be placed
in the same community district from which they come.
The Homefinding, Intake and
Foster Parent Training unit recruits, trains and certifies foster
and adoptive parents; approves kinship parents; and re-certifies existing
foster parents on an annual basis. ESS foster care relies on people
ready to open their homes and their hearts to children in need of a
new family, even if only for a short period of time. To ensure that
ESS does everything in its power to select the right people, a lengthy
screening and training process is followed before anyone is approved
for certification. Caring for foster children is both extremely rewarding
and very challenging. Many of the children in foster care come from
abusive and neglected backgrounds and have existing problems that foster
parents need to address. Although difficult, many foster parents welcome
one child after another into their homes because success at foster parenting
can be one of the most rewarding experiences of adult life.
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Intensive Preventive Program
Building on its experience in Family Preservation,
ESS has launched a new and innovative program directed at deeply-troubled
adolescents whose behavioral disorders prevent their families from maintaining
stability and a healthy relational dynamic. These young people have
often ended up in trouble with the law due to their actions (e.g., drug
use/abuse, conduct disorder, mental health concerns); this program tackles
their problems through Functional Family Therapy, a family-based treatment
system that has proved successful in addressing a wide range of problems
in youth and their families. Differing from traditional family preservation
approaches by utilizing a highly structured, short-term course of treatment,
Functional Family Therapy is also effective in steering at-risk youth
away from both the mental health and justice systems. Trained program
therapists meet with the family weekly in the home to work on the presenting
problems, while a case manager facilitates referral to whatever additional
service provisions the family may need after the case is closed. An
Intensive Intervention case is usually active between three and four
months, after which it may be closed, or referred to a traditional family
preservation plan. The overarching intent is to prevent out-of-home
placement for adolescents, and to stabilize youth who are returning
to the family from institutionalized care.
This initiative marks the first time that New York
City has utilized Functional Family Therapy, and ESS is one of only
three service providers offering this therapeutic option. Data from
the casework will be captured and analyzed so that prospective clients
may be more effectively directed to the program in the future.
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Group Homes and Supervised Apartments
for Teens
ESS cares for and supports 24 foster teens at two group
homes and two supervised apartments that we operate in the Bronx. Our
staff create a stable community relationship and provide surrogate parenting
around the clock in each group home, including meal preparation, the
assignment of chores, homework review, and discipline. In each of the
two supervised apartments, two teens take a trial run at independent
living while still having the supportive resources of ESS to help them
through initial stumbles. Although the goal of ESS foster care remains
providing services that aid in reunification of the family, we recognize
that teens approaching fast the age of legal independence need to acquire
the skills necessary to reach their full potential as productive adults.
Because of this, ESS emphasizes academic achievement, college preparation
and job readiness skills. Teens under our care attend seasonal retreats
to Vermont, Seneca Lake, and Warwick, New York in addition to local
workshops that broaden their perspectives and life coping skills.
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Youth Development
ESS’ Youth Development Program helps train over
100 foster children from age 14 and up in skills necessary to survive
successfully in a complex world. To ensure that our youth can thrive
independently, we provide coaching and workshops on a variety of real
life situations: selecting a suitable job, job search, self care, human
sexuality and family planning, budgeting, finding a place to live, and
setting up. Developing these skills empowers teens to get and keep jobs,
resolve issues with landlords, build a network of people to depend on,
and believe they have the strength to meet life's challenges. In addition
to group training workshops, we offer one-on-one counseling, peer support,
and informational and referral services. ESS complements core skills
training with activities as varied as College Prep Program, Cyber Academy
Computer Program, college tours, career fair, youth conferences, out-of-city
educational retreats to Seneca Lake, Frost Valley and Shelter Island,
and monthly cultural trips around New York.
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