Services Offered

This service provides archival preservation of adoption records for clients who received traditional adoption services through CHS. By request, and for a nominal fee, adult adoptees can obtain non-identifying information that was available at the time of adoption. The service also provides search-and-reunion services for members of the adoption triad (birthparent, adoptee or adoptive parent) who desire to make contact. For more information, call Linda Thomas at 493-7811. Learn more about these services.

Counseling is offered to birth mothers and birth fathers about their options. Birth parents also receive assistance with decision-making and planning for the mother and child. Medical care, housing and financial assistance may also be provided. For more information visit www.decisiontomake.org or call Roberta Targino at 493-8307.

As a provider of Medicaid-funded mental health care, CHS provides pyschiatric services, in-home clinical services, and behavioral health and overlay services. This work includes psychiatric evaluations, medication and treatment services for children with a diagnosed mental illness - an estimated 25 percent of the foster care population.

CHS provides services through community based care, pre-adoptive, medically needy and therapeutic foster care. These programs work with children who have been removed from their homes for their safety. All homes have parents who have been trained to care for foster children and are visited at least monthly to verify quality care. CHS staff provides full-service case managment to ensure the children make progress toward permanency goals.

This program provides parenting education and support to the general community and to the high-risk and court-ordered parenting population. Participants improve parenting skills that help to reduce the risk of child abuse through community classes, one-on-one in-home training and Good Choices. Good Parenting, a program specifically targeted toward teens in foster care with the emphasis on pregnancy prevention, pre-natal care and parent-infant care. For more information, contact Marty Clark at 493-7798.

This free, voluntary child abuse prevention program is designed to promote positive parenting, child health and development, and reduce child abuse and neglect and other poor childhood outcomes. Our Family Support Workers make in-home visits to provide information on resources in the community, including health care and counseling, while also providing guidance and emotional and practical support. Our goal is to help parents be the best parents they can be. For more information, call Lisa Duncan at 794-0268.

This program provides free and voluntary supportive services to low-risk pregnant women referred by their physicians. Skilled Family Support Workers spend time with the women to help ensure a healthy pregnancy. Services include referral to childbirth education classes, information and referrals to community resources, and follow-up telephone contact throughout the pregnancy. For more information, call Sonya Thorpe at 493-7748.

This program provides comprehensive services and ongoing resources for adoptive families that experience challenges. To help ensure the success of the family, services are available to families as they prepare to adopt through the foster care system and after the adoption has been legally finalized. Services are available for families until the adopted child turns 18. Services include counseling, case management, parent education and a thriving support group. For more information, contact Sheri Pearson at 493-8625.

Our Teen Parenting Program located at Buckner Place and Chambers is for young mothers (ages 13 – 17) in the foster care system who have a child under 18 months old. The program allows the girls and their babies to stay in the same household and works with the girls to prevent future abuse and neglect. The young mothers, themselves victims of abuse and neglect, receive special skills training to prepare for successful parenthood and independence.

S.T.E.P.S. is a prevention service that helps empower, strengthen and promote healthy families by offering direct services and linking them to community resources to prevent abuse and neglect.
S.T.E.P.S. supports prevention in child welfare activities through its service center network and contracted community providers. Prevention services are available to all families in Duval and Nassau counties.
Referrals may be made for limited financial assistance, transportation needs, food or clothing, and/or families needing parenting support. For more information, contact Aleasia Kelly at 493-7708.
 

This program helps abused and neglected teen girls. Goals include reducing displacements, improving academic achievement, helping children feel protected and providing an environment for therapeutic treatment of victimization and trauma. This group care facility includes an independent living environment for youth working toward self-sufficiency. The girls have their own rooms in a “dorm-like” environment while they complete their education and prepare for life beyond foster care.

This residence houses 12 abused and neglected foster children ages 4 – 12 with serious behavior problems who are in need of temporary care. Many of these children have severe emotional and behavioral problems due to histories of sexual and physical abuse. Our Terry Center provides a safe, nurturing home for the children while their parents attempt to complete their court-ordered case plans to reunite their families. For some of the children, parental rights have been terminated and other permanency options are being explored.
 

CHS has been Florida’s most trusted adoption organization for more than a century. A full range of adoption services is offered in our Louise Jackson Adoption Center, including the voluntary placement of infants, international adoptions and the placement of children with special needs. Extensive recruitment efforts are made to locate families, and prospective adoptive families receive education about adoption issues. Post-placement services are offered to support families following the placement of a child and prior to the legal finalization of the adoption. For more information, contact Martha Cox at 493-8306.