Beliefs:

• Long-term foster care is not the answer.
• Each child needs permanence as early as possible.
• The birth family is the child's best resource.
• The entire family is our client.
• A group makes a better decision than an individual.
• The birth family needs to be included in the decision-making process.
• It is our responsibility to provide a safe place.

Our Butte & Shasta County foster parents:

• Are flexible and take on challenges
• Laugh, cry, and can be themselves
• Support birth families and put children's needs first
• Are representatives in the larger community
• Provide a safe shelter for children
• Model, mentor, and support the families of children
• Contribute to a team effort and to catalyze change

Goals:

• Include the birth family.
• Facilitate relationship between birth and foster families.

F.T.M. (Family Team Meeting) of Shasta County

Our goal is to provide Family Team Meetings and work with the families of Sahasta County.

• Give families an opportunity to share ideas. Families need a sense of power.
• Give families an opportunity to bring their support systems. Families know what.

• Give families a chance to address problems and seek options. Families gain strength through this process.

• Give families an opportunity to build on strengths. A positive approach always works better.

• Give families & communities a chance to offer resources. Often these resources are overlooked.

• Give families a chance to be heard; listening is a powerful tool. Listening is more powerful than telling.

• Give workers a chance to serve as helpers to the family. Workers have more impact working “with.”

• All decision makers are in the room. Group decisions are better than individual ones.
  

S.O.F.T.: In-Home Family Support Services of Butte County

Once a family has accomplished the goals in their case plan and their children are reunified with them, it is a time of both excitement and great stress. Social support, which was probably lacking when the children were taken, continues to be an issue. Often, parents are clean and sober for the first time in many years and must learn new, healthy ways of coping.

• Assistance with transportation, food and clothing.
• Parenting on-site classes, and in-home parent training.
• Short-term family counseling to address adjustment and crisis intervention.
• Information and referral services.
• Housing support, including child safety, continuity of family relationships.
• Monthly family meetings to evaluate progress, and identify any new needs and services.
• Case management, with written documentation.
• Specific needs services i.e. day-care, counseling, tutoring or mentoring, and housecleaning.
• Tutoring-in –home with volunteer group for educational needs and advocacy.

For more information please contact:
Kari Barron 530-893-2316 ext. 211
kbarron@youthandfamily.info

Relative Locator Program

RLP has found hundreds of relatives for hundreds of individuals and families since 2005. More importantly, RLP has helped bring families closer together and helped to create mutual support systems that benefit everyone involved. These new or renewed connections can often result in increased support, stability and positive identity development of individuals in these families.

• Locate relatives when it appears nothing can be done.
• Help individuals learn more about thier families of origin.
• Seeks to enhance support networks by connecting inviduals with family.
• In many cases, renew relationships with relatives.
• Create stronger family connections to benefit families and individuals.
• Help individuals explore their personal history by rediscovering pictures, video and other mementos that surface from these family connections

For more information please contact:
Eric James 530-893-2316 ext. 210
ejames@youthandfamily.info