Foster Care and Adoption Programs —
Serving Youth Ages Birth to 21

Kindred Family Focus foster care programs serve boys and girls, ages birth through 21, who can benefit from support in a family setting. Each youth's specific needs are carefully assessed. Then they are matched to a foster home that can meet their special needs through an individualized treatment plan.

Kindred Family Focus is also a private, non-profit adoption agency designated by the Minnesota Department of Human Services to license adoptive homes and place youth who are under state or tribal guardianship for the purpose of adoption.

Kindred Family Focus collaborates with counties or tribal agencies to plan for adoption services specific to Minnesota's Waiting Children and families. As an agency under contract with the state, Kindred Family Focus offers adoption services at no cost to families and counties or tribal agencies. The adoption program serving Minnesota Waiting Children is supported by funding through the Minnesota Department of Human Services.

If you are looking to foster or adopt a child, please contact us today.

Snapshot

Emergency Foster Care

Youth Served: Short-term placement when a child must be removed from the home because of abuse, neglect, or unsafe living conditions.

• Trauma-sensitive care
• Emergency foster care services, available 24/7
• Specially trained foster parents

• Departments of Juvenile Services
• County Human Service Agencies
• Law Enforcement
• Community Programs

Short-Term Foster Care

Youth Served: Short-term relief for families of youth with emotional, behavioral, and developmental needs.

• Trauma-sensitive care
• Trained foster parents take youth into their homes

• Departments of Juvenile Services
• County Human Service Agencies
• Community Programs
• Private Pay Respite

Whole Family Foster Care

Youth Served: Intensive support and collaborative services for at-risk parents.

• Trauma-sensitive care
• Program where the whole family can be placed together in the foster home
• Trained foster parents work with families to teach parenting skills
• Provides in-home supervision of parent and child interactions
• Helps families improve communication and relationship skills

• Departments of Juvenile Services
• County Human Service Agencies
• Department of Health
• Family Court
• Community Programs

Therapeutic Foster Care – Alternative to Residential Treatment (ART)

Youth Served: This is an alternative foster care placement with increased supervision for youth who are transitioning out of residential treatment, or as a least-restrictive option in place of residential treatment.

• Trauma-sensitive care
• Experienced social workers who provide increased face-to-face contact
• Increased supervision in a structured living environment with experienced foster parents
• Independent living skills integrated into the youth's treatment plan
• Foster care parents receive additional respite and allowance to help support the youth's increased need for supervision

• Departments of Juvenile Services
• County Human Service Agencies
• Community Programs
• Residential Treatment Centers

Medically Fragile Programming

Youth Served: This program places youth, ages birth to 21, who have medically fragile conditions with foster parents who are specially trained to care for them in a foster care setting. Youth in this program can be placed in Foster Care or ART.

Program Model/Services

• Trauma-sensitive care
• Collaboration with counties for reunification plans
• Coordination of community services with the treatment team as required for family stability
• Monitoring by skilled social workers
• 24/7 on-call services and crisis management
• At least one foster parent that is an RN or a medically trained individual
• Families that have specialty training and extensive experience working with specific symptomologies
• Families that are skilled at coordinating outpatient services and case management
• Families that know how to deal with complex emergencies
• Increased supervision in a structured living environment

• Departments of Juvenile Services
• County Human Service Agencies
• Community Programs
• Residential Treatment Centers

Unhealthy Sexual Behaviors Programming

Youth Served: This program provides foster care for males, ages birth to 21, who are charged with a sexual offense, have self-admitted sexual issues, have completed sex offender treatment, or have unhealthy sexual behaviors. Youth in this program can be placed in ART or Specialized Foster Care.

• Trauma-sensitive care
• Collaboration with counties for reunification plans
• Coordination of community services with the treatment team as required for family stability
• Monitoring by skilled social workers
• 24/7 on-call services and crisis management
• Families that have specialty training and extensive experience working with sexually harmful youth
• Families that are skilled at coordinating outpatient services and case management
• Increased supervision in a structured living environment

• Departments of Juvenile Services
• County Human Service Agencies
• Law Enforcement
• Community Programs

Adoption

Youth Served: Youth who need permanent placement in a safe, loving home.

• Licensed by the Department of Human Services to provide Minnesota families with adoption services
• Adoption Training and Education
• Adoption Home Studies
• Adoption Home Study Updates
• Relative Adoption Home Studies
• Relative Adoption Home Study Updates
• Child-specific Recruitment Services
• Child Placement Services
• Post-adoption Services

• Trauma-sensitive care
• Recruitment and preparation of adoptive families and adoptable children and youth
• Adoption specific training for families
• Preparation of the child for adoptive placement
• Case management and supervision of the child's adoptive placement
• Referral services
• Wendy's Wonderful Kids

• County Human Service Agencies

Wendy's Wonderful Kids

Wendy's Wonderful Kids is making a difference for thousands of children through adoption – one child at a time. The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption awards grants to public and private adoption agencies to hire adoption professionals who implement proactive, child-focused recruitment programs targeted exclusively on moving America's longest-waiting children from foster care into adoptive families. These professionals, known as Wendy's Wonderful Kids recruiters, work on caseloads of children the system has forgotten, ensuring they have the time and resources to give each child as much attention as he or she deserves. These recruiters employ aggressive practices and proven tactics focused on finding the best home for a child through the starting points of familiar circles of family, friends, and neighbors, and then reaching out to the communities in which we live.

The children served by the Wendy's Wonderful Kids program are typically those who have been waiting the longest for an adoptive family and home. By the time they are referred to a Wendy's Wonderful Kids recruiter, nearly 70% are older than age 8, 30% have had six or more placements, and 50% have been in foster care more than four years. Some have never had a plan of adoption and have simply been on a track to age out of foster care at age 18 or 21 without the security and love of a permanent family.

Learn more about Wendy's Wonderful Kids here: www.davethomasfoundation.org

All Kindred Family Focus Programs share the following Accreditation/Licensing:

• Accredited by the Council on Accreditation (COA)
• Licensed by the State of Minnesota
• Member of Foster Family-based Treatment Association
• MCCCA members

Admissions