Services – Jefferson County, Pennsylvania

Children & Youth Services

Adoption

Every child deserves a loving, nurturing permanent home, where they feel cared for, safe and supported. Jefferson County Children and Youth Services works to provide this permanency through partnerships with the Statewide Adoption and Permanency Network (SWAN) and the Pennsylvania Adoption Exchange.

The Pennsylvania Adoption Exchange (PAE)

The Pennsylvania Adoption Exchange at www.adoptpakids.org maintains an ever-changing database of children who need families as well as families who have been approved to adopt. Matches between children and families are carefully made. PAE publishes a photo-listing book of waiting children. Interested families and social workers receive contact information for the agency that has custody of a child.

Statewide Adoption and Permanency Network (SWAN)

Statewide Adoption and Permanency Network (SWAN) is a partnership among public and private agencies, judges and the legal community, foster and adoptive parents to build a better collaborative adoption process in Pennsylvania. SWAN serves children in the custody of county Children and Youth agencies who have a goal of adoption. These are children with special needs and finding an adoptive family may be a bigger challenge due to one or more of the following factors:

The child is five years old or older;
The child is a member of a sibling group in the same adoptive home;
The child is a member of a minority group;
The child has an emotional, physical, or mental condition or disability; and
The child has a genetic condition that may lead to a disease or handicap.

Child Sexual Abuse Center

A Child Sexual Abuse Center is where children who have said they were either physically or sexually abused or children who were witnesses to violent crime, come and are interviewed once by a trained forensic interviewer with nationally accredited training, while the investigative team (law enforcement, prosecution, child protection, mental health personnel, medical personnel, victim/witness advocates, probation officers etc.) watch the interview on a monitor eliminating the need for each member of the team to do a separate interview with the child.

This helps to lessen the trauma a child experiences by eliminating the repetitive interviews so that the child isn’t reliving the experience over and over again. The investigative team works together making team decisions about the investigation, treatment, management, and prosecution of child abuse cases. The facility is designed to be child friendly to help the child feel more at ease. Referrals for interviews are made through either the police or child protective services.

For more information, visit Western PA CARES for Kids.

Community Education

Training for Mandated Reporters

The Department of Human Services supports child abuse recognition and reporting training through a variety of delivery methods, including web-based and in-person.

The department contracts with:

Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance to provide training to school personnel, child care staff, clergy, law enforcement, public and private social service agencies, and social service professionals.
Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics to provide training to physicians, school nurses, hospital staff and Emergency Medical Service providers.
The University of Pittsburgh’s Child Welfare Resource Center to develop a free, web-based training. This training is approved in accordance with Act 126 of 2012 and Act 31 of 2104, for mandated and permissive reporters

View a list of additional approved courses for child abuse recognition and reporting training for mandated reporters.

Emergency Services

ChildLine

How ChildLine Protects Children

ChildLine is part of a mandated statewide child protective services program designed to accept child abuse referrals and general child well-being concerns, and transmit the information quickly to the appropriate investigating agency. ChildLine is responsible for receiving verbal and electronic referrals 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The toll-free hotline, 1-800-932-0313, is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to receive reports of suspected child abuse. Mandated reporters can report electronically.

Additionally, child abuse investigation outcomes and general protective services assessment outcomes are submitted to, and reviewed and finalized by, ChildLine specialists.

For more information, visit KeepKidsSafe.pa.gov.

Family Support Services

Family support services are community-based services that assist and support parents in their role as caregivers. Such services can take many different forms depending on the strengths and needs of the family, but their overarching goal is to help parents enhance skills and resolve problems to promote optimal child development.

All families can benefit from support in some way; the principles of family support should be incorporated into casework across the child welfare service continuum.

Family support programs may address the general population or target particular groups such as ethnic and cultural minorities; adolescent parents; kinship caregivers; or families facing health, mental health, or substance abuse issues. They can be comprehensive or focus on a specific goal.

Therapy is one of the many family support services that are available. People decide to seek therapy for a variety of reasons. Therapy offers a way to figure out why we do what we do and, more importantly, how to do things differently. You may be having relationship issues and need a compassionate listener who can help you create a path forward. You may have recently suffered a loss, such as a spouse, parent, child or job. You may be having trouble connecting with others and want to create more meaningful relationships. Your child or adolescent may be having problems communicating with and relating to you or their teachers.

For more information, visit:

Community Action

Family Preservation

Justice Works Family of Services

Community Guidance Center

Core Insights Psychological Group

Community Connections

Foster Care and Kinship Care

Every child deserves a loving, nurturing permanent home, where they feel cared for, safe and supported.

What is Foster Care?

The foster care system provides a temporary arrangement in which adults provide for the care of a child or children whose birthparent is unable to care for them. Foster care is not where juvenile delinquents go. It is where children go when their parents cannot, for a variety of reasons, care for them.

Foster care can be informal or arranged through the courts or a social service agency. The goal for a child in the foster care system is usually reunification with the birth family, but may be changed to adoption when this is seen as in the child’s best interest. While foster care is temporary, adoption is permanent.

What is Kinship Care?

Kinship care refers to the care of children by relatives or, in some jurisdictions, close family friends (often referred to as fictive kin). Relatives are the preferred resource for children who must be removed from their birth parents because it maintains the children’s connections with their families.

Children of all age groups come into foster care for many different reasons, some alone and others with siblings. Jefferson County Children and Youth Services helps the agency provide temporary substitute care for children when it becomes necessary to ensure their safety, sense of security and to provide for their basic needs and wellbeing. They provide a safe, stable home until the children are able to return home. When that is not possible, resource families may become the child’s alternate permanent family through adoption or continue to take care of the child until an alternate permanent family can be identified.

For more information on, or to enquire about, becoming a Jefferson County foster home, please contact our office at 814-849-3696.

Why Are You Important?

The agency tries to reduce the stress of foster care placement by looking for resources that will help maintain children in their own community because:

Resource families in Jefferson County help children maintain ties to their community and things familiar.
Children are able to stay in their school district, which prevents or reduces a disruption to their learning. When children cannot be placed together, Resource families in Jefferson County help the agency maintain children near their siblings, which allows for easy visiting among siblings, friends and family.
Resource families in Jefferson County help provide better opportunities for creative visitation with parents, which keeps parents engaged in the reunification process.

Why Are You Needed?
Resource families are needed to provide a protective nurturing environment for infants, school age children and teens. For infants, children or teens with special needs and for teen mothers and their children.

There are minimum requirements that must be met by all applicants:

Resource parents can be married or single
Be at least 21 years old
With or without children of their own
Must be financially stable and able to meet their own needs
Have a home or apartment that meets the Department of Public Welfare’s standards
Must be willing to participate in a detailed personal interview and safety assessment of their living environment
Must complete and pass required child abuse, state police and FBI clearances
Must complete a medical assessment
Must complete pre-service trainings

Resource parents are part of the agency team and provide a short-term commitment that can make a long-term impact.

Family First Act
The Family First Prevention Services Act was signed into law as part of the Bipartisan Budget Act on February 9, 2018. This act reforms the federal child welfare financing streams, Title IV-E and Title IV-B of the Social Security Act, to provide services to families who are at risk of entering the child welfare system. The bill aims to prevent children from entering foster care by allowing federal reimbursement for mental health services, substance use treatment, and in-home parenting skill training. It also seeks to improve the well-being of children already in foster by incentivizing states to reduce placement of children in congregate care.

For more information on foster care and kinship care, visit KeepKidsSafe.pa.gov.

Independent Living

Jefferson County Children and Youth Services works with Pentz Run Youth Services, located in DuBois in Clearfield County, and is committed to providing a safe, secure, nurturing environment for male and female youth that require short or long-term alternatives to family living. The group home and shelter have been thriving for several years serving youth ages 10-18. The Transitional Living program will allow youth who are aging out of the system the choice to remain in the care of Children and Youth or Juvenile Probation agencies while gaining the independence they desire. This program is also designed to allow college bound youth to live on their own while still relying on the support of their placing agency.

Program Description
Many youth who have been in foster care or other out of home placements have not had the support systems necessary to learn skills needed to live on their own. Often, these youth who have been protected by agencies for years, suddenly find themselves on their own with no support. The goal of the Transitional Living program is to assist these youth in learning the necessary skills to live on their own while still providing them with supervision, guidance and structure. Youth will have the opportunity to “learn while doing” as they begin practicing independent living skills.

The Transitional Living program is designed specifically for youth who are under the age of 21 and who are in need of intensive support services in order to gain independence. The semi-supervised transitional living setting provides youth room and board while they are working to reach their goals. Support staff are available to the youth 24 hours a day to assist them with daily needs, transportation to and from appointments, school and/or work and learning to manage an apartment on their own. The Youth live on their own or with a roommate in the apartment, this program is not recommended for youth who are unable to be left alone.

We continue to follow 3800 PA Department of Public Welfare regulations in order to maintain a quality, consistent and licensed program. The youth will receive all necessary medical, dental, vision and mental health services and will have a treatment plan to follow. The program is designed for long-term care allowing the youth to develop all the skills necessary to avoid homelessness in the future as well as completion of continuing education or job training.

The program will be open to youth transitioning from Pentz Run’s group home as well as other youth who may be referred and meet the eligibility requirements.

Jefferson County Children and Youth Services works with Pentz Run Youth Services, located in DuBois in Clearfield County, and is committed to providing a safe, secure, nurturing environment for male and female youth that require short or long-term alternatives to family living. The group home and shelter have been thriving for several years serving youth ages 10-18. The Transitional Living program will allow youth who are aging out of the system the choice to remain in the care of Children and Youth or Juvenile Probation agencies while gaining the independence they desire. This program is also designed to allow college bound youth to live on their own while still relying on the support of their placing agency.

Program Description
Many youth who have been in foster care or other out of home placements have not had the support systems necessary to learn skills needed to live on their own. Often, these youth who have been protected by agencies for years, suddenly find themselves on their own with no support. The goal of the Transitional Living program is to assist these youth in learning the necessary skills to live on their own while still providing them with supervision, guidance and structure. Youth will have the opportunity to “learn while doing” as they begin practicing independent living skills.

The Transitional Living program is designed specifically for youth who are under the age of 21 and who are in need of intensive support services in order to gain independence. The semi-supervised transitional living setting provides youth room and board while they are working to reach their goals. Support staff are available to the youth 24 hours a day to assist them with daily needs, transportation to and from appointments, school and/or work and learning to manage an apartment on their own. The Youth live on their own or with a roommate in the apartment, this program is not recommended for youth who are unable to be left alone.