Our corollary services include ...
Child Profile
A child profile is a complete child history that can be used to inform a prospective foster or adoptive family of the child’s or youth’s background. The document also is provided to children when they are old enough to understand their history. Birth parents’ identifying information is not provided on this profile.
Child Preparation
Child preparation consists of a minimum of ten meetings with a child to help him or her accept or understand the past. Sorting through often-saddening family histories, adoption team members walk children through each step of their lives.
Working on a “Life Book” for the child, Diakon team members help the children to look at important topics such as where and when they were born, information about their birth family as appropriate, why they came into placement and other pertinent information. We also discuss first-family and/or foster-care memories with the child to help resolve the emotions of grieving and loss that often accompany life within the child-welfare system.
Child-Specific Recruitment/Family-Finding and Family Group Conferencing
Intensive family-finding services are offered to children and youths, both for those who are adjudicated dependent and those children who have open family-service plans and remain in the birth family setting. A family group conference is the end result of this service to provide support for the reunification of children with their birth parents or permanent placement with relatives after the children have entered county custody.
This service also can be offered to facilitate the child’s continued placement with their family of origin—focused on providing the resources necessary to assure the birth family successfully completes the family service plan and is no longer involved with a county children and youth services agency after having met goals within the family service plan. This service is completed within fostering connections timelines for location and identification of kin resources and can be provided in bi-monthly increments. This service is available for children involved with both the county juvenile justice and children and youth services systems.
