Helping kids realize their potential
Foster Group Care
“There is no such thing as other people’s children.”
An important sign of strength in a community is the way it cares for the most vulnerable in its midst, and it is in this same spirit that Family Resources cares for, serves, and supports the children in our Foster Group Care program.
The children in these programs are survivors. They are resilient. And in all of the ways that matter, they are doing the best they can with the tools they’ve been given. And so we make it our mission to give them better tools to build a strong foundation for life.
We walk alongside these kids and help to get them back on track. In our care, they develop the behavioral habits necessary to return home or to a lower level of care. This begins by maintaining an environment that provides for their safety, security, care and well-being. When a past resident becomes a good neighbor, family member, parent, and citizen, then we know we have achieved what we set out to accomplish.
Vision
An environment that challenges and empowers.
Mission
To create an empowering environment that challenges others to realize their potential and make responsible choices by believing in:
Supporting one another
Emphasizing strengths and solutions
Linking resources
Fostering teamwork
+ Bridge House
Family Resources' Bridge House Program is a residential facility for youth. The adaptable milieu management model at Bridge House enables the program to serve clients of varied intellectual and social functioning levels. We understand that girls respond to crisis in their lives differently than boys, therefore, the treatment at Bridge House is designed to meet the specific needs of girls. Most of the young women in our care have suffered some type of physical, emotional or sexual abuse. They carry varied mental health diagnoses and are acting outward/inward in destructive ways. Bridge House offers a safe place for girls to explore themselves, their feelings and their disruptive patterns of behaviors.
Program Elements
- On-site LPHAs to conduct assessments for BHIS Services
- On-site BHIS Service Workers for individual, group and family skill building
- Psychiatry Service through Vera French bi-monthly for case review and medication management
- On-site therapy services for individual and family therapy
- Member of the Iowa Task Force for young women
- On-site therapy services for individual and family therapy
- "Girls Circle" research based curriculum
- On-site vocational opportunities with our dietary and maintenance departments
- Opportunities for community involvement through structured activities and community service projects
- Client assistance fund available to help cover individual/family needs such as: gas money, hotel stays, bus tickets, uniform fees for organized athletics, etc.
- Weekly Culture Group
- Weekly Therapy Group - Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Additional Services:
- Iowa KidsNet partner agency
- Foster Care/Adoption Counseling
- Pregnancy Counseling
- Rape/Sexual Assault Counseling
- Domestic Violence Counseling
- Independent living preparation
- IA/IL Athletics Association
+ Leslie Program
Family Resources' Leslie Program is a secured residential setting for youth who are adjudicated delinquent and demonstrate a need for a secured setting based on criminal history, substance use, and/or history of elopement. We recognize the need for secured placement may vary, therefore we are able to offer flexible and individualized programming in order to best meet the goals of each resident. We utilize a cognitive-behavioral approach incorporating milieu, individual therapy, group therapy, families, and communities.
Program Elements
- 16 Bed Capacity
- On-site BHIS Service Workers for individual, group and family skill building
- On-site LPHAs to conduct assessments for BHIS Services
- Psychiatry Service through Vera French bi-monthly for case review and medication management
- On-site therapy services for individual and family therapy
- On campus learning center offering structured middle and high school level educational instruction
- On-site vocational opportunities with our dietary and maintenance departments
- Opportunities for community involvement through structured activities and community service projects
- Client assistance fund available to help cover individual/family needs such as: gas money, hotel stays, bus tickets, uniform fees for organized athletics, etc.
- Aggression Replacement Training
- Structured Recreational Activities
Additional Services:
- Iowa KidsNet partner agency
- Foster Care/Adoption Counseling
- Rape/Sexual Assault Counseling
- Domestic Violence Counseling
- Independent living preparation
- IA/IL Athletics Association
+ SUMMIT Program
"Success Using Morale, Motivation, Individualized Treatment"
The S.U.M.M.I.T. Program provides residential programming for youth with varying backgrounds and histories of system involvement who would benefit from a short term residential stay (3-6 months). Clients are either Adjudicated Delinquent or Child in Need of Assistance and court ordered into foster group care. Clients have either acquired delinquent charges prior to placement or are experiencing such severe disruptive at home or in the community that future delinquent behavior is probable without intervention. S.U.M.M.I.T. has successfully been used either as an initial effort, prior to longer-term residential placements, or as an alternative to previously failed placements. We utilize a cognitive-behavioral approach incorporating milieu, individual therapy, group therapy, families and communities.
Program Elements:
- 10 bed capacity
- On-site LPHA's to conduct assessments for BHIS services
- On-site BHIS service workers for individual, group and family skill building
- Tru-thought accountability
- Aggression Replacement Training
- Cognitive restructuring
- Client assistance fund available to help cover individual/family needs such as: gas money, hotel stays, bus tickets, uniform fees for organized athletics, etc.
- Opportunities for community involvement through structured activities and community service projects
- On-site vocational opportunities with our dietary and maintenance departments
- Structured recreational activities
- Psychiatry Service through Vera French bi-monthly for case review and medication management
- On-site therapy services for individual and family therapy
Additional Services:
- Iowa KidsNet partner agency
- Foster Care/Adoption Counseling
- Rape/Sexual Assault Counseling
- Domestic Violence Counseling
- Individual and family therapy
- IA/IL Athletics Association
Family Resources gave me a
chance
Want to learn more?
Contact Stephanie Hernandez at 563-468-2130 or complete the form below.
Residential Treatment Methodology
The role of Residential Counselors is to provide behavioral management for problematic behaviors while focusing on assisting the young person in learning, applying, and realizing the motivation necessary to exhibit social skills and healthy emotional coping. Residential Counselors are hyper-vigilant, so they can catch kids doing well and then reinforce this at a ratio of at least four times for every response cost given to a child. Individual and group therapists assist the young person in developing healthy thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and perceptions as well as working through troubling emotional and mental conflicts and events.
Best practice approaches are utilized with the specialized treatment populations:
TruThought with youth exhibiting irresponsible thought patterns
Aggressive Replacement Training (ART) model to alter the behavior of aggressive youth, reduce anti-social behaviors, and offer an alternative of pro-social skills
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) treatment is a strength based model of cognitive-behavioral therapy that teaches clients how to manage overwhelming emotions and handle distress without losing control
Intra-agency (i.e. Rape Sexual Assault Program, Domestic Violence Program) and inter-agency (i.e. psychiatric consultation through Vera French, Center for Drug and Alcohol Services) resources are incorporated into a child's treatment to help fill gaps in services not available directly by the residential programs.
Finally, but most importantly, the child's family and others important to them remain a significant part of their life through visits, phone calls, re-integration activities, collaboration, and family therapy.
