Table of Content
- County Guide for Reducing Jail Populations and Costs
- Recruiting host families
- County News Hot Topics – Mental Health and Criminal Justice Reform
- Celebrating 25+ Years in Adams County, PA: 1988-2015
- ARPA Impact Report: An Analysis of How Counties are Addressing National Issues With Local Investments
- Video
A great feature that both of these homes already had was an ideal transition entry space. Having a secondary entry is essential in reducing trauma for the child and the current residents of the home. Children are brought directly to a Homes for Hope house where they are welcomed by foster parents and undergo an intake process designed to identify how to best meet the child’s needs and help the child feel safe. In these times of uncertainty, it is important to Adams County to have a safe place for each child to go. Your generous support will help us provide services such as therapy for trauma survivors, prevention efforts for at-risk children, and community outreach and education. Homes for Hope allows us to keep the children in the county, in their school, and in their community.
Other community organizations donated furniture, landscaping services and other supplies to the houses. The program saves the county around $155,000 per year in foster care placement costs alone. Tedesco spearheaded the Homes for Hope program to provide in-county, emergency foster care for children. The program lessens trauma for children by keeping them closer to local connections and supports while allowing siblings to be kept together throughout emergency placement. Today Homes for Hope officially opened to provide emergency foster care for children in Adams County ages 0-18 for up to 30 days while alternative kinship home, foster home, or return to parent options are explored. Two single-family homes have been renovated and will be utilized as part of this short-term placement program to improve foster and kinship care in Adams County.
County Guide for Reducing Jail Populations and Costs
Counties Matter in Human Services There are over 257,000 county human services employees across the country delivering vital services to our nation’s most vulnerable populations. Adams County is working to expand services so the homes can be licensed at a therapeutic level of care to provide more wraparound services for families. “It was really a process of ‘how do we make it easier on the child, less traumatic, and also ease the burden on our staff? ’ by opening a program that notoriously has been done by faith-based groups or nonprofits and not by counties themselves,” Tedesco said. The program launched in 2019 when the county repurposed two county-owned houses acquired during an open space purchase, Tedesco said.
Adams County, Colo.'s Homes for Hope program provides in-county, emergency foster care for children and keeps them closer to local connections and supports while allowing siblings to be kept together throughout emergency placement. Approximately 8-10 children will be served at any time within the two residences. While Adams County will prioritize placement of children ages 0-10, the foster homes will be licensed to serve youth up to age 18 to support the priority of keeping sibling groups together during emergency placement. Teen moms placed into foster care with infants will be able to stay at the homes until an alternative long-term option is found. Host families selected by the Child Protection Agency will live in the homes to care for the children placed in the homes. The county’s child placement agency also receives funding to administer the program and provide oversight to the homes, Siedlecki said.
Recruiting host families
We believe everyone should have access to therapy services, especially those most at risk. That is why we continue to grow our team of therapists to meet the increased demand for mental health services in both English and Spanish. We are working to ensure that everyone who needs support has the opportunity to access immediate crisis support and longer-term recovery therapy, and we invite you to be part of the healing journey.
Reducing recidivism through effective jail- and community-based services can decrease jail admissions and populations and improve outcomes for people with criminal histories. By placing foster youth in the county instead of throughout the state, human services staff avoid making long treks for a case and children have more opportunities for kinship visits. The host families also cannot adopt the children placed in “Homes for Hope,” but, rather, must commit to giving them the short-term stability they need, said James, the Adams County Human Services director. Sex offender registry checks also are completed for all foster families and foster parents must complete 40 hours of trauma informed training before they can be certified as foster families, Siedlecki said. Besides siblings, teen moms placed into foster care with infants will be able to stay at the homes until an alternative long-term option is found. Griego said the normal length of stay is around 90 days, but the time period is often extended when it takes longer for a child to reunify with his or her family or find more appropriate foster placement.
County News Hot Topics – Mental Health and Criminal Justice Reform
Adams County Human Services Director Katie Griego said the two homes are fully furnished and can serve up to 12 children between both properties. Please don't scroll past this—the Internet Archive is growing rapidly, and we need your help. As an independent nonprofit, we build and maintain all our own systems, but we don’t charge for access, sell user information, or run ads.
Host families will get the state-issued daily rate for each foster child placed in the home. Those daily rates range from $11.64 to $14.12, depending on the age of the child, according to the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children. Due to severe weather, and with the safety of residents and county employees in mind, Riverdale Animal Shelter will be closed on Thursday, Dec. 22. Flags will be lowered for 5 days to remember each of the 5 individuals who lost their lives in this senseless tragedy.
Janis James, Adams County's division director of children and family services, left, and Charles Tedesco, Adams County commissioner, inspect a newly built house Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2018, which will house foster families. Adams County has built two new homes to house foster children before they are permanently placed. Parents will also move into the homes to provide some temporary stability to the foster children. Janis James, Adams County's division director of children and family services, visits a new house built to house a foster family on Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2018. The challenge Adams County faces, as well as many municipalities around the country, is where to immediately place the child on a temporary basis while a more permanent solution is found; and in a way to limit trauma.
To learn more about the foster care program, please visit adcogov.org/fostercare. Griego said the Homes for Hope program also provides a “safe place to land” and creates a home-like setting to reduce the number of times children are moved from one foster family to another. In 2018, EVstudio was awarded a unique and special project with Adams County’s Children & Family services, with director Janis James and other staff, to help alleviate a challenging problem they encounter. Home for Hope will provide a safe haven, a warm smile, and a warm bed at the time when they are most vulnerable, immediately after being removed from their parents.
“Just imagine having to leave all you’ve ever known — this approach gives kids that experience of minimal disruptions and those wraparound supports right away,” she said. “We’ve seen success certainly in the homes and being able to keep kids within their own home schools and not have to make any additional changes for them,” Griego said. “I wanted to provide something that was more of a transitional-type separation, rather than a traumatic-type separation,” he said.
Providing these two Homes for Hope for foster children in Adams County is estimated to save the county $155,000 per year in foster care placement costs, while enriching the lives of Adams County foster children. With around 1,000 children entering out-of-home foster care placement in the county, social workers often struggle to find adequate emergency housing throughout the state and face challenges keeping siblings together. This project resulted in two dilapidated houses remodeled into two warm and inviting residences suitable and appropriate for an emergency foster care environment. We’re proud to have had the opportunity to help assist Adams County staff and families through the Homes for Hope program providing emergency foster care facilities and in so doing, help lessen the shock and trauma these kids face. We know this starts by including every safe person in a family and helping each of them find closeness, connection and safety in their relationships. Adams County is actively recruiting for foster parents to support children in the community.
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