Specialized Foster Care (SFC) has been providing specialized foster care services for over two decades to children in Berks and contiguous counties. Each year SFC provides case management service individual, family and group therapy, supervised visitation with family, psychiatric services and access to medical services to over 120 children. These children are in need of a safe environment with loving caregivers. Most have been victims of abuse or neglect from their parents/ care givers or their families struggle with drug and alcohol abuse and mental health issues that prevent them from appropriately caring for their children.
The goal of SFC is to reunite the child with his family by promoting healthy interactions with the family, though family education, and helping families access services to remediate the issues, which caused placement. If family reunification is determined not feasible, SFC works with the child towards other goals including independent living, adoption and/or alternative permanent living arrangements. SFC also interfaces with CHOR residential programs to facilitate discharges to a lower level of care.
Children are supervised 24 hours a day in the home of a foster family. Currently CHOR has approximately 35 foster families and many kinship families. Foster families and kinship families are required to have 30 hours of training per year, and child abuse and criminal record history clearances.
The SFC Program also has mom baby and independent living curriculums, which assists foster children with parenting, daily life skills, and interpersonal relationships to promote healthy adulthood.
The staff of SFC includes, a program director, a program supervisor, family workers, case managers, case aids, administrative staff and two master level clinicians and a consulting psychiatrist. Our staff is dedicated to providing treatment services to all members of the child’s family to promote healthy family relationships.
