Adoption - foster care and pre/post adoption services

As a result of scoring 90% (first time ever by any agency), Edwin Gould Services For Children And Families' Permanency Services is now ranked number one among Foster Care agencies in the fifth Annual 2004 Evaluation of the Administration For Children’s Services Preventive Program contracted Foster Care Agencies.

Based on the 2004 Evaluation Quality Improvement Protocol (EQUIP) scores, Edwin Gould Services for Children and Families is ranked as the number one foster care/adoption agency. Our goal is to ensure that every child has a safe and stable home and family environment. In order to achieve this goal, we are diligent in facilitating every parent to achieve the skills to create and sustain their home and family. Edwin Gould is dedicated to linking its families with supports from the communities in which they reside.

Building Child, Youth and Family Assets

Edwin Gould not only embraces the Family to Family concept, but works in accordance with its goals and strategies in order to achieve improved and timely results for children and families involved in the child welfare system. Historically children have been in foster care much longer than was necessary. Reunification of families is our primary goal here at Edwin Gould. We keep caseworkers focused on our mission, and guide them in how to assist families in mobilizing the services needed that will support reunification and decrease the length of stay. Before any discharge is finalized, Edwin Gould puts the required services that will sustain and support the family - almost always community based - minimizing the amount of children reentering the system. As a result of our practices, Edwin Gould received a perfect score (7.25) in reunification and reentry in the 2004 EQUIP.

A large percentage of our children are placed with their siblings. When this is not possible, siblings are placed in homes in very close proximity of each other. Kinship foster care is always encouraged at Edwin Gould. Birth parents and children are interviewed extensively to assist in recruiting kinship resources. When a relative is not an option, we place children with godparents and neighbors and on occasion have placed children with their school teachers, which is permitted under the guidelines of kinship foster care).

Edwin Gould values placing children in the least restricted setting. We have proven that we have the skills, capacity and know how to provide services to children and adolescents in the least restrictive set up with a minimum of disruption. In 2004 Edwin Gould reduced the number of children served in group care, when our group homes were decommissioned. We were able to place a number of adolescent girls from those homes into kinship care or family foster care. Many have transitioned successfully.

Here at Edwin Gould, we ensure a network of support by requesting parent, child and adolescent participation in all service plan reviews and conferences. This allows foster parents, birth families, children, adolescents, caseworkers and community members to make decisions as a team.

As a community based agency, Edwin Gould participates in Service Plan Area or SPA, a network community based organization created by Administration For Children’s Services to 'brainstorm' about community needs and services and ways to meet those needs. Meetings are held in every community district and each agency is required to be represented. They contribute to the support process, establish linkages, collaborate and report to their respective agencies with the group’s 'feedback'.

Adoption - Another form of Permanency

Edwin Gould has proven that we can do adoptions in a timely manner and move quickly on permanency. We received an outstanding rating for the fourth year consecutively in 2004, finalizing 61 adoptions. We are committed to providing all children with permanent families. If reunification is not a viable option, we move swiftly towards adoption. Our children are never left without a permanent home.

D aged 7 had been in care for seven years, when the agency freed her for adoption. However, during the pre-adoptive process, the case proved to be very difficult as the foster parent became very stubborn and uncooperative resisting agency rules and regulations with a know it all attitude. The Adoption finalization had to be adjourned once for lack of information.

D is a lovely well adjusted child who graduated Kindergarten in June. It’s the adoptive mother's first adoption and the relationship between the two is described as very good and enjoyable.

Baby I was also abandoned in the hospital at birth and placed in an Edwin Gould Foster home two weeks later due to medical complications. Baby I’s mother returned while the case was in the termination of parental rights phase. However, the agency was able to complete the termination process and have Baby I freed for adoption in a timely manner. Baby I was legally adopted by the time he was 17 months old.

Foster/Adoptive Parent Support Group

Edwin Gould Services for Children and Families has partnered with New York State Foster and Adoptive Parent Association (NYSFAPA) to form a consumer based support group for Edwin Gould Services for Children and Families' foster/adoptive parents. Our support group is neighborhood based and foster/adoptive parents meet to network, share information, meet other foster parents, discuss topics of concern and increase their level of community support while building partnerships with NYSFAPA members.

NYSFAPA members feel that the agencies which collaborate with parents to form associations and support groups are better able to meet the needs of the foster/adoptive children. They also believe that collaboration between agency staff and support groups aid in giving a voice to the children we serve. The support group is one of the main forums in which foster/adoptive parents speak on behalf of the children in care. It is also the avenue where members can unite as group advocates and lobby before legislators and policymakers who are more responsive to groups than individuals.

Our goal through NYSFAPA is to close the support gap that foster families often experience by offering problem solving techniques such as training in behavioral management, cultural awareness, special education services, sexual abuse, anger and rage, respite care, about teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, adoption policies and procedures, the juvenile court system and how to manage adolescents effectively. The support group also offers an opportunity for Edwin Gould’s foster parents to socialize at dances, scholarship banquets and overnight, out of state conferences held by NYSFAPA.

Edwin Gould offers a holistic approach to address case circumstances. In so doing, our medical and mental health department monitors all medical concerns and follow-ups required as they relate not only to our children’s health and developmental needs, but our birth parents also. The educational needs of our children are monitored by our academic/vocational counselor and caseworkers. Special/exceptional needs infants and toddlers all receive early intervention services and headstart programs.