Services Offered
Adoption Resource Center
Promotes the healthy care and development of children in stable, loving homes. Services include birth parent counseling, domestic adoptions, international adoption home studies and parenting classes.
Beacon Centers at Westgate and Northmore Elementary Schools
Provide local residents, particularly youth, with skills to help avoid crime and to solve community problems.
Dependency Case Management
Offers a wide variety of services to children who have been abused and/or neglected. The goal is to reunify children with their families or facilitate another appropriate permanent placement. Services also include counseling and referrals.
Families 4 Kids
Seeks loving, permanent homes for children in foster care. Also recruits those interested in special needs adoptions and offers required training.
Nelle Smith Residence
Provides residential care and support for girls ages 13-18 who need long-term care due to a history of abuse, neglect and/or lack of an appropriate family setting. Services prepare girls for independent living and help them mature into adulthood with skills to attain self-sufficiency and a productive future.
Project 18
Focuses on activities that prepare foster youth and homeless teens for successful independent living when they turn 18. Offered during after-school hours, the curriculum includes core classes, job coaching, substance abuse prevention activities, sports clubs, broadcast journalism training and life skills classes.
Project Safe Place
An outreach education program with a transportation component to our Safe Harbor Runaway Center. More than 150 business and public sites create a network of "safe places" for youth seeking help during a crisis.
Safe Harbor
Palm Beach County's only emergency shelter for runaway and homeless youth, Safe Harbor also provides emergency shelter to teens in the dependency system while they await a more permanent placement.
Teen and Family Counseling Center
Offers counseling to runaway, truant and high-risk youth. Designed to preserve and strengthen the family, services include screening and assessment, therapeutic counseling, family reunification, case management, referrals, and follow-up.
Transitions Home
Provides a safe, nurturing environment for teen mothers and their babies to become a self-sufficient, healthy family. Mothers and their children may stay for up to two years.
Mentoring Programs
MODEL (Mentors Opening Doors, Enriching Lives):
Provides one-to-one mentoring for children ages 4 to 17 who have a parent incarcerated in a federal or state prison. Each child is matched with a mentor who can provide one-on-one guidance and support to help the youth develop to his or her fullest potential.
For more information or to schedule an appointment, please call Olivia (561) 868-4378 or Margie (561) 868-4332.
Transitions Mentoring:
Provides specialized mentoring by matching teen parents with adults to help pregnant and parenting teens incorporate critical baby skills into their parenting to improve their own and their child’s well-being. The Transitions Mentoring program is a member of Healthy Beginnings. To learn more about the programs serving pregnant women and children from birth to 5 years of age, or to learn if your family is eligible, call (888) 634-7900.
For more information about Transitions Mentoring, please call Ana (561) 868-4387 or Vanessa (561) 868-4378.
Project 18 Mentoring:
Provides mentoring and support services to foster youth ages 12 to 17 to promote positive behaviors, healthy relationships between foster care youth and adults, to prevent juvenile delinquency, and to guide youth as they transition from foster care to independent living upon turning 18.
For more information about Project 18 Mentoring, please call Tiffany (561) 868-4357, Neffy (561) 868-4453 or Cristina (561) 868-4366.
Mentors must:
· Be at least 21 years of age.
· Complete an application, interview and background screening at our office.
· Attend an orientation and training session.
· Commit to at least one hour per week of face-to-face contact with youth.