A Family Assessment is one of the many ways that Greene County Children Services helps our community maintain safe and nurturing homes for children. Family Assessments are our first response to reports of possible child abuse or neglect. They help us understand how families are functioning, and aid in determining if children are safe and getting adequate care.

Caseworkers visit homes, talk to family members, and help them access services to make changes to ensure the children are cared for and safe. The vast majority of times, concerns can be resolved without any services beyond the Family Assessment.

There are two types of Family Assessments:

• Traditional Response

  • A traditional child protection response is needed in order to determine whether abuse or neglect has occurred and to ensure child safety and well-being.

• Alternative Response

  • An alternative approach where there is no direct finding of child maltreatment may be more appropriate

In both the Traditional and Alternative Responses caseworkers partner with families and ensure that they are connected with the services and supports they need to keep their children safe.

For children who have been or are at risk of being abused or neglected, we first attempt to keep the family together by coordinating needed services. When it is necessary to remove a child from the home, we work with families to develop the problem-solving skills they need to live together in a safe and stable environment.

Whether the children are in the home, with relatives, or with a foster family, we work in partnership with families to make changes that will reduce the potential for abuse and neglect. For example:

• We hold family team meetings to assist and empower families in developing a plan of action. A family team meeting is a gathering of family members, friends, support people, and community partners who join together to focus on the care and protection of a child. Families identify their strengths and talk about the concerns in order to set goals and make their home a safer place for children.

• We coordinate needed services, which are provided directly by our caseworkers or through referrals to appropriate community resources.

• We hold follow-up meetings every 90 days to review the progress families make on their goals.

• We conduct home visit with children, parents, and care providers to continually monitor child safety and risk factors as families work toward providing a stable and nurturing environment for children.

• We seek our relatives and kinship providers when children cannot safely return home to give children stability and permanency within their own family and/or community.

• We seek out adoptive families for children who cannot achieve permanency with a relative or kin provider.

At Greene County Children Services, support comes in many forms. Our case aides help with important services for families such as:

• Transportation

• Supervision for parent/child visits

• A listening ear/support

We also rely on the support of other community agencies for services we do not provide directly. Working in partnership with area agencies, we help connect families to a variety of social services such as:

• Drug and alcohol abuse services

• Family and individual counseling and psychological testing

• Job and family services

• Housing assistance

• Domestic violence services

• Health care needs

Nationally, youth who age out of the foster care system are a vulnerable population. They are more likely than their peers to experience homelessness, develop PTSD, experience unemployment by the age of 24, and experience drug dependence. Only 58% graduate high school by the age of 19.

The Independent Living Program is designed to assist you who are in custody of Greene County Children Services (ages 14-21) and who have emancipated from custody (18-21) to develop and implement age-appropriate independent living skills. The program assists youth in developing the skills necessary to successfully transition and be successful in adulthood. Each youth is assigned an Independent Living Specialist who works individually with him or her.