The family provides care for children who have active reunification plans with their birth families. These families help with reunification efforts, but if that is not successful, they are committed to provide permanency through adoption. Sierra recruits and provides training for Concurrent Planning or Resource Families willing to provide permanency for children or youth. This Resource Family is certified for foster care and approved for adoption.

There are thousands of children and youth currently available for adoption that have not been able to reunify with their biological families. These children are often living in foster care with families that are not able to make a commitment to provide permanency. These children are school age and older youth who may have experienced more serious physical or emotional trauma in their lives. These children need the long-term stability of living with a permanent loving family that has made a forever commitment to them.

To find out more about the children waiting for adoptive families select any one of the following links:

http://www.destinationfamily.org/availableyouth.html
http://www.childrenawaitingparents.org/
http://www.cakidsconnection.com/FindChild.php
http://www.sacheartgallery.org/the_children.htm
http://www.solanoheartgallery.com/Gallery.aspx
http://www.bayareaheartgallery.com/
http://www.adoptions.co.shasta.ca.us/Heart%20Gallery/heartgallerykids.htm

Provides a homestudy assessment for foster families and relatives who already have a children in foster care living in their home. Many children in the child welfare system are living with relatives or foster families who are willing to provide permanency through adoption, but they have not completed the required home study. Sierra receives referrals from our many county partners to complete the required home study that assesses and prepares the family for the adoption process.

PlacerKids is a collaboration between Sierra Forever Families and Placer County's Children's System of Care to increase the ability of finding permanency for all of Placer County’s children living in foster care. The collaboration has been in place since 1998 in response to a dramatic increase in the number of children in out of home placement. In Placer County, PlacerKids – building families for life – has created an integrated program that puts the needs of children first. In the past, too many children bounced from one foster home to another, never having a permanent place to call their own. The concept of permanency-focused care is at the heart of PlacerKids’ philosophy. The purpose is to facilitate every child’s immediate need for placement into an everlasting family situation, either through successful reunification or adoption. Since the inception of PlacerKids, adoptions have increased over 500% in Placer County.

PlacerKids specifically provides services to families and individuals who reside in Placer County.
www.placerkids.org

Sierra Forever Families offers a range of therapeutic and supportive services to foster/adoptive/guardianship/birth and kinship families and the children that are placed with them.

Therapy Services

Permanency trained therapists offer individual, family and group therapy to any family on the permanency spectrum. These therapists provide comprehensive mental health services with a specialty focus on trauma, grief and loss, attachment and permanency issues. PCIT or Parent Child Interaction Therapy is also available. PCIT is a behavioral family intervention for children 2-7 years of age with disruptive behavior disorders. PCIT involves live coaching and focuses on enhancing the parent-child relationship and increasing the parents’ behavior management skills. These services are provided to Sierra families in Sacramento, Placer and Nevada Counties. In Nevada County, Sierra has established an Early Periodic Screening Diagnosis Treatment ‘EPSDT’ (Medi-cal) contract and provides mental health services to Nevada County residents as well as Destination Family services to Nevada County dependents.

Sierra has had a contract with the California Department of Social Services since 2000 and provides post adoption information, support and referral services in the Sacramento and Chico District Office regions. These services include adoptive parent support groups and networking events; information, support and referral services by telephone, email or in person to any member of the adoption ‘triad’ (birth parents, adoptive parents and adoptees); therapeutic sessions; informational flyers and educational workshops. In addition, in the Sacramento District Region, Sierra provides technical and supportive services to the older youth adoption and permanency program.

 

 

 

Sierra Forever Families continues to lead the way in providing youth permanency with a history of innovative programs.

Wonder Mentoring Program

The Wonder Mentoring program matches kids living in foster care, one-to-one, with caring, consistent adults. These mentors know how to listen, support, and guide each child through fun, age appropriate experiences in music, the arts, sports, volunteer service, dining out, and nature. The children enrolled in the program our called "Explorers" and the adults that volunteer and serve as mentors to these children are called "Guides."

For more information, contact: Julie M. Gustafson, Program Coordinator: 916.290.1206 ext. 335

New Guide Orientations for our Fall 2012 class:

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Capital Kids are Waiting (CapKids)

Capital Kids are Waiting finds forever families for Sacramento children living in foster care. CapKids has been a partnership between Sacramento County and Sierra that has found permanent homes for over 500 children since 1994. This program focuses on child-specific recruitment for those children in foster care who are the least likely to be adopted. CapKids highlights children with disabilities or who are in sibling groups.

Destination Family creates lifelong family connections for Sacramento, Nevada and Placer County youth in foster care. The goal is that no youth will age out of foster care without a permanent family connection that is as legally, emotionally, and physically secure as possible. Each agency in this effective public and private collaboration contributes the talent, resources and commitment youth need to succeed. www.destinationfamily.org

The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption provides Sierra with a Wendy’s Wonderful Kids Recruiter. It is the role of the WWK recruiter to find adoptive homes for children in Sacramento living in foster care. http://www.davethomasfoundation.org/

Click to view a message from Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.

Kinship Support Services Program is a collaborative effort of Sierra and the Child Abuse Prevention Council of Placer County. The program was developed to improve child safety and permanence, maintain family ties, inform relative caregivers about permanency, and provide supportive services that help caregivers to successfully parent and maintain the capacity to work. Sierra provides Master’s Level Social Workers to facilitate Kin-care support groups monthly in Auburn and Roseville with the assistance of a kin-care provider. Over 142 kin-care providers have attended these support groups since the beginning of the project.

 

 

 

The Transitional Housing Plus program provides services to youth who are 18-24 years old and who were formerly in foster care. THP+ services focus on assisting the youth in many areas such as education, housing, vocational training, and other tasks associated with independent living. The primary goal of the program is to assist youth in becoming independent and successful as they transition to adulthood. Sierra is currently providing THP+ services in Nevada County.
http://www.thpplus.org