A dedicated team of highly motivated professionals works with closely with your family to best serve you and the children in our care. In North Central Florida, more than 120 children are waiting for their forever families. Most are or older or may have siblings, and some have physical, emotional or mental disabilities. All long for the love and security only a forever family can provide.
For more information on adoption, please contact:
Lake and Sumter Counties: Adoption1MidFlorida@chsfl.org (352) 742-6170
Citrus and Hernando Counties: Adoption2MidFlorida@chsfl.org (352) 754-1111 ext. 50
Columbia, Suwannee, Hamilton, Lafayette, Union, Bradford, Dixie and Levy Counties: Adoption3MidFlorida@chsfl.org (386) 758-5757 ext. 314
Alachua County: Adoption4MidFlorida@chsfl.org (352) 334-0955
Marion County: Adoption5MidFlorida@chsfl.org (352) 732-1412
If you'd like to visit one of our upcoming Heart Galleries to learn more about children waiting to be adopted, click here to find the one nearest to you. You may also see our wonderful children waiting for their forever families by visiting our Adoption page. To learn more about the process, we invite you to attend one of our Adoption Orientations -- click here to view the schedule.
For more information, call 866.427.5451, or e-mail AdoptFloridaChildren@chsfl.org
Offers full-service case management to children and families in which abuse and neglect has caused court involvement. Services include monthly in-home supervision, preparation of court reports and court representation, case plan development, permanency planning and staffing, case documentation and data management, and coordination with other providers and community resources.
These warm, home-like centers provide a safe place for children and their parents to spend time together during court-ordered supervised visits. Without these centers, families would have to spend their precious visits in DCF offices. At Family Visitation Centers, caring caseworkers demonstrate positive role modeling for parents while ensuring children are safe. Additionally, these centers allow divorced parents to exchange their children in a neutral setting without seeing one another, saving the children from exposure to more parental acrimony.
Volunteer Opportunities
Qualifications:
Must be at least 19 years old
Must devote at least 1.5 hours per week for at least six months (students must devote at least 20 hours total)
Ability to view situations without judgment
Willingness to accept guidance and supervision from staff
Ability to maintain an independent role and establish boundaries
Good verbal and written communication skills
Reliability and commitment
Volunteers will receive pre-service and ongoing training.
For more information on volunteering at one of our Family Visitation Centers (Lake City, Gainesville, Ocala), please contact Sue Driscoll at 352.316.2730 or VolunteerMidFlorida@chsfl.org
Click here to find the Family Visitation Center near you.
This voluntary home program helps increase positive parent/child interactions, improve parenting skills, ensure proper attention to health services, promote school readiness and develop self-sufficiency in parents. We offer services to qualified families expecting a child, and to qualified families with children under age 5. Healthy Families provides information and guidance, as well as emotional and practical support. Healthy Families is designed to help prevent child abuse and poor childhood outcomes.
For more information on our Healthy Families program, please contact Jacqueline.LaSure@chsfl.org
Intense in-home services provide counseling, parent education and support for families with children who are at risk of abuse or neglect. In-Home Family Support Services are provided in Alachua, Dixie, Gilchrist, Levy, Bradford, Union, Columbia, Hamilton, Lafayette, Suwannee and Putnam counties. Family Team Coaching Services are provided in Marion, Lake, Sumter, Citrus and Hernando counties.
Haven House, a six-bedroom group home in Ocala, offers teen girls the chance to live in a large, lively family, nurtured for and cared by devoted staff members. Often, girls come to Haven House after living in foster care for many years, and they struggle with low self-esteem, making it difficult to appropriately deal with their emotions.
Once at Haven House, girls learn from positive role models who work to empower the teens with skills to build their self-confidence and social abilities so they may pursue their dreams and achieve their goals. We hope Haven House will help these girls establish themselves as independent adult members of society.
READ! is an educational intervention program designed to break the cycle of child abuse and neglect. Based loosely on the “Born to Read” program developed by the Florida Library System, READ! includes all youth Children’s Home Society of Florida serves, ages 0-18.
When families spend time together reading and discussing issues in their homes, they develop an open forum for growth and development.
If you're interested in the READ! program, or to donate new or gently used books, please contact Christie Sloan at 866.427.5451 or Christie.Sloan@chsfl.org
