Family-Based Alternatives Project  New Families   Already Verified Families

We believe that every child needs a family and there is a family for every child. Assuring a family for every child requires continuously recruiting alternate families who can be ready to care for a child when a birth family can’t. EveryChild is currently recruiting alternate families through the Family-Based Alternatives Project.

The Support Family Model

EveryChild, Inc. is developing a family-based model of care using a “Support Family” as an alternative to residential facility care.

• The model is a different way to arrange caregiving that offers the reliability of a paid caregiver and the lifestyle of a family when birth parents are unable to care for a child.
  
  
• A Support Family is an alternate family who has been recruited, carefully selected, fully prepared, and paid to provide care for a child with a disability.
  
  
• Developing a system of family-based alternatives to residential facility care requires finding Support Families who are willing to love a child, be trained and prepared to meet their unique needs, and offer their home and family as a secure and nurturing home for a child to grow up.

A Support Family cares for a child with disabilities when a birth family can't.

We know from research and child development experts that a child's need for attachment and security can best be met in a family. We also know that birth family circumstances coupled with the particular needs of their child with a disability sometimes mean a family struggles and needs extra support. Sometimes circumstances have led to out-of-home placement of children with disabilities in residential facilities like nursing homes and institutions for persons with mental retardation.

Most children are placed in residential care when loving and competent birth families do not have the kind of family circumstances or help to enable them to raise their children and they voluntarily seek help from services agencies. A smaller number of children come from family situations where problems have led to intervention by the child protective services system and parental rights have been restricted on a temporary or permanent basis.

Birth families and Support Families work together on a child's behalf.

Most of the children who need Support Families have parents who have tried to provide loving care but found themselves unable to do so because of circumstances beyond their control. It is beneficial for them to remain involved in the ongoing lives of their child. A child is best served when the birth family and Support Family are able to form a trusting relationship and work together on the child's behalf. Often Support Families become like extended kin with birth families. A successful arrangement is a match not only between a child and a Support Family, but between a Support Family and a birth family. The success of the arrangement requires helping the birth family and the Support Family to develop a plan about their mutual expectations and responsibilities.

For children who come into care through the child protective system, a court appointed guardian is involved in planning in the birth parents' stead and parental involvement may be prohibited or restricted by the guardian.

Support Families are recruited specifically for children with disabilities.

Prior to the Family-Based Alternatives Project, there was little recruitment of alternate families in Texas for children whose birth families voluntarily placed them into residential care. While foster families have been recruited for children who came into care via the child protective system, recruitment has not been targeted for children with disabilities.

The Support Family model of care for children with disabilities is distinguished from traditional foster care under the child protective system by several unique features:

Support Families are specially prepared to care for a child with disabilities.

To care for a child with developmental disabilities, a Support Family must be prepared to provide for his or her unique needs. To be prepared a family must have access to adequate training, advice, and assistance from professionals who have particular expertise related to the child's needs. For children whose families intend to share care through a shared parenting arrangement, both the birth family and the Support Family must have access to the kind of training and assistance that fits their unique needs and circumstances.

Careful matching of children and families is the key to success.

The goal is to find the best fit or "match" between a child, a birth family and a Support Family to ensure that the arrangement can be sustained. Finding the best match requires understanding a child's needs and both families' preferences, strengths and needs. It requires careful exploration and nurturing of relationships between a child and a Support Family and between the two families.

• Every child has unique capacities and unique needs.
  
  
• Every family has unique capacities and unique needs.
  
  
• The challenge is to find and support the right fit between the unique capacities and needs of children and families to ensure sustainable, long-term family life for children with disabilities.
  

Here are some important things to know about becoming a Support Family:

• Children Who Need Support Families
• Provider Agency Oversight
• Careful Matching
• Long Term Commitment
• Reimbursement
• Birth Family Involvement
• Qualifications of Support Families
• Verification Process
• Training

If you would like to be contacted about the possibility of becoming a support family please click here.

If you are already a verified foster home and want to learn more about working with EveryChild please click here.