Compendium Abandoned Infants

Abandoned Infants

The purposes of Public Law 100-505, the Abandoned Infants Assistance Act of 1998 as amended, are to provide funds for the development, implementation and operation of demonstration projects designed to prevent the abandonment of infants and young children, including the provision of services to members of the natural family for any condition that increases the probability of abandonment; to identify and address the needs of abandoned infants and young children; to carry out residential care programs for abandoned infants and young children who are unable to reside with their families or are to be placed in foster care; to recruit, train and retain foster families for abandoned infants and young children; to carry out programs of respite care for families and foster families of abandoned infants and young children; to recruit and train health and social services personnel to work with families, foster families and residential care programs for abandoned infants and young children; to prevent the abandonment of infants and young children; and to care for abandoned infants and young children through model programs, providing health, educational and social services at a single site in a geographic area where a significant number of abandoned infants and young children reside. The legislation also allows for the provision of technical assistance training programs to support the planning, development and operation of the service demonstration projects. The reauthorized legislation (Section 101 (h) of P.L. 100-505, as amended) mandates that the Secretary shall give priority to applicants located in States that have developed and implemented procedures for expedited termination of parental rights and placement for adoption of infants determined to be abandoned under State law.

This section of the Compendium describes the 15 Abandoned Infants Program Service Demonstration Projects initially funded in FY 2001 under the following priority areas:

2001C.1: Support for Previous Comprehensive Service Demonstration Projects
2001C.3: Family Support Services for Grandparents and Other Relatives Providing Care for Children and Substance Abusing and HIV-Positive Women
2001C.4: Recreational Services for Children Affected by HIV/AIDS

Priority Area 2001C.1:
Support for Previous Comprehensive Service Demonstration Projects

Mission Inn Services is an Abandoned Infants Assistance Demonstration Project in a four-county area of West Michigan. The goal of Mission Inn is to promote safe, secure, permanent, nurturing families for infants and young children who are at risk of abandonment or who have been abandoned. Mission Inn accomplishes this through a program that coordinates health, educational, and social services for such infants and children, as well as their caregivers. The Mission Inn Project will provide home-based, wraparound services to families in the geographic area to identify and achieve a variety of family-identified, family-centered goals related to providing a safe, permanent, nurturing environment that fosters developmental growth in children.

The Epiphany Center Day Treatment Program is part of Mount St. Joseph-St. Elizabeth, a multi-service agency that has a 149-year history of providing services to San Francisco's troubled families. The primary goal of the Epiphany STAR (Services to Accelerate Reunification) Project is to prevent the abandonment of infants who have been born into families impacted by substance abuse and/or HIV-related issues.

The overall aim of Project Stable Home (PSH) at Children's Institute International (CII) is to reduce out-of-home placements of young children and to improve the quality and stability of their living conditions. PSH's services are specifically designed to assist pregnant women and families of young children who are vulnerable to abandonment as a result of parental substance abuse, HIV status, mental illness, poverty, or other risk factors. The program proposes to provide expanded services for HIV-infected mothers and/or children through a newly formed partnership with Caring for Babies with AIDS. In addition, PSH will add new evaluation instruments, employ new service-specific evaluations, and expand its subject pool. Finally, PSH will facilitate replication of its program by packaging the PSH home visitation curriculum, offering professional training via the Internet, sponsoring a home visitation conference, and publishing professional journal articles and/or monographs.

Protestant Community Centers, Inc. (P.C.C.I.) will continue and expand the Project B.A.B.I.E.S. (Boarder and Abandoned Babies' Intervention and Education Services) model of providing community-based, comprehensive, intervention and intensive case management services for drug exposed and abandoned infants and their families. Project B.A.B.I.E.S. will expand its geographic service area; enhance current outpatient and in-home services; provide new services, such as legal support, that will aid in parent empowerment and family stability; and ensure the safety, permanency, and well being of at-risk infants. The project's goals are to decrease the number of boarder babies; prevent abandonment and multiple out-of-home placements; strengthen families at risk of abandoning their infants due to substance abuse; and build an interdisciplinary coalition of providers to coordinate services, share best practices, and influence public policy.

Project Protect's services are centered on preventing the abandonment of children-particularly children who are HIV-positive and/or children who have been exposed to drugs before birth-and enhancing the stability of these children's families. Project Protect will provide family-centered and culturally appropriate counseling, treatment, and referral services in permanency planning, substance use, and parenting. Through this grant, Project Protect will promote enhanced utilization of a comprehensive, coordinated consortium of hospitals and community-based agencies that provide medical and social services to families living with HIV and drug use. Project Protect will also disseminate research; provide technical assistance to similar programs; contribute to policy discussions about the needs of families affected by AIDS and drug use; evaluate the effectiveness of program services; and identify emerging needs.

Project Lagniappe of Children's Hospital in New Orleans provides case management, mental health and substance abuse counseling, respite services, and developmental assessments/interventions to families with a child who has been abandoned or is at risk of abandonment due to maternal HIV or substance abuse. Project Lagniappe has been instrumental in strengthening a comprehensive, coordinated system of care in the greater New Orleans region to address the needs of these families. The Project, founded in 1993, evolved from a collaborative effort of three programs of Children's Hospital: Pediatric AIDS Program, Resources for Adolescents Program, and Collaborative Approach to Nurturing Program, which have served families since 1988. Through this grant, Project Lagniappe will continue to serve as a link in the existing network of services needed to prevent abandonment of children who are affected by HIV and/or substance abuse in the New Orleans area.

Great Starts will enhance and expand services to prevent infant abandonment, maintain family integrity, and when appropriate, assist in family reunification. The program is located in Knox County, Tennessee and serves drug-addicted and HIV-positive women and their children within a 16-county region. Since its 1991 opening, Great Starts has evolved from a supportive housing program to an accredited licensed mental health and addiction treatment facility, with a licensed, on-site, therapeutic nursery. A maximum of 22 women and 37 children reside for up to six months in apartments located in a campus-like setting, where they also receive treatment and other relevant services. Among the programs chief objectives are treating mothers' substance abuse, trauma, and other mental health problems; improving parenting skills; improving children's mental and physical health; and assisting mothers' in obtaining employment and permanent housing. Great Starts' expected outcomes include long-term sobriety for mothers, desirable mother-infant interactions; children remaining in their mothers' custody; gainful employment for mothers; and the increased ability of mothers to establish a safe, sober home for their children and themselves.

The Drug-Exposed Infant Project will serve young drug and HIV-exposed children who have been abandoned and placed in the foster care system. By working with birth parents, foster parents, and child welfare agency staff to focus on the short and long-term needs of the child, the project will seek to strengthen the partnerships that are most essential to the safety, permanency, and the well being of the child and family. The proposed project will keep some of its current components, such as the use of family support workers to engage birth parents early, and will add new approaches, which include the use of housing specialists to help generate more housing units for our families. Once the project has demonstrated its efficacy, the staff from the Drug-Exposed Infant Project will share their experience with the City's network of 43 child welfare agencies through training and technical assistance.

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Priority Area 2001C.3
Family Support Services for Grandparents and Other Relatives Providing Care for Children and Substance Abusing and HIV-Positive Women

Services rendered by The Family Support Service for Grandparents and Other Relatives are designed to increase the probability of stable, nurturing, and long-term intrafamilial, caregiver relationships for children whose biological parents, because of drug use or HIV, have died or are unable to meet their everyday needs consistently. The program will provide home and community-based, supportive, mental health and case management services for relative caregivers and help them access additional health, mental health, legal, financial, welfare, and educational services in the community to assist them in caring for the children under their guardianship.

Project Healthy Grandparents will use grant funds over a four-year period to support home-based, support services to grandparents raising grandchildren who are at risk for developmental delay. The primary goal of Project Healthy Grandparents is to improve the social, psychological, physical, and economic well being of such grandparents. The objectives of the proposed project are to reduce psychological distress among care giving grandparents; decrease grandparents' sense of isolation by increasing their social support; facilitate grandchildren's access and follow-up to comprehensive, early intervention assessment and evaluation services; and maximize the quality of life for grandparent caregivers.

The Kinship Collaborative comprises four agencies that provide social services, legal assistance, support groups, and respite for kinship families in Alameda County, California. The proposed project enables the collaborative to coordinate services to kinship families by developing a collocated, interdisciplinary legal/social service team. Kinship families seeking legal help will receive initial legal/social service assessments with both an attorney and a social worker present; they will also have access to the continuum of services provided by the collaborative, as stated above. High-risk families will have access to intensive, individualized case management services, which are provided in the home and in the community. Services include: counseling and emotional support, assistance with obtaining health care coverage, health and mental health care services, assistance and advocacy with school issues, assistance in locating adequate and affordable housing, and coordination of services with other service providers. The project's expected benefits are improved family functioning; increased family stability and improved permanency planning; assurance of children's safety; improved health and well-being of children and adults; decreased isolation of the caregivers, increased socialization opportunities for children, and reduced strain on public systems such as foster care, child protective services, and the juvenile court.

This project will provide support services, in West Virginia, to relatives who care for children of HIV-positive and/or substance abusing mothers. It is a collaboration of four groups, including West Virginia University Extension Service, as the lead organization, West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources: Office of Social Services and Office of Behavioral Health, and Mission West Virginia, Inc. The project will build on the Relatives as Parents Program in West Virginia, and by the end of the third year, will create support groups in all of the state's 55 counties. Support groups will receive assistance in handling substance abuse issues and will explore connections to recreational activities for children. Community service representatives will attend a regional workshop, be part of an advisory board, and share their expertise with a support group. In addition, the project will produce a manual on how to establish a rural, statewide, collaborative program for relative caregivers.

For almost four years, the Grandparents and Relatives Outreach (GRO) Project has successfully served children affected by prenatal substance use and/or HIV. The program also serves relative caregivers of such children. Among GRO's chief objectives is to coordinate care to HIV-infected children, birth to age five, who are in the care of relative caregivers. The project also seeks to enhance and implement a system of interdisciplinary support services that includes assessment, service planning, and individualized services for family caregivers in the greater Albuquerque, New Mexico area. GRO's approaches will include interdisciplinary teams trained in solution-focused techniques; case management, legal, medical, group support, and developmental services within a family services plan framework; home visitation; counseling for children and families; support groups; educational guidance; and outreach activities that enhance community collaborations.

The New York Council On Adoptable Children (COAC) will develop a new initiative-Casa y Córazon/The Center for Caregiver Support-to provide comprehensive support to grandparents and other relatives caring for the children of mothers who are substance abusers or infected with HIV and AIDS. COAC has a 31-year history of recruiting and supporting adoptive families for special needs children, and a 9-year history of helping HIV-positive parents, grandparents, and other relatives establish permanency plans for their children. The program's objective is to maintain stable families by enhancing a system of support services for family caregivers. The project's 4-year objective is to assist 174 grandmothers and other family members and the 261 children whom they are parenting to meet their emotional and material needs. These 174 unduplicated families will be assisted in meeting their emotional and material needs with bilingual services that range from help with financial issues to intensive clinical therapy regarding grief, resentment, behavioral issues, and substance abuse. The intended ultimate outcome for each family is the prevention of the children's entry into foster care. Building upon COAC's existing work with AIDS-affected families and caregivers, the Center will address the unique needs of caregivers and children affected by NW/AIDS and substance abuse, many of whom face behavioral and neurological challenges or are HIV-positive, while filling gaps in current services in New York City. Center services will include family therapy for caregivers, children, and multi-family groups; supportive counseling; permanency planning; and, legal and benefits assistance.

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Priority Area 2001C.4
Recreational Services for Children
Affected by HIV/AIDS

The Families' and Children's AIDS Network (FCAN) and a consortium of collaborators have designed the Red Ribbon Trails program to address the multifaceted needs of Illinois' HIV-affected families and children for recreation, respite, and therapy. The uniqueness of the proposed program is its emphasis on the entire family unit, HIV infected as well as affected, as the target population. Red Ribbon Trails will bring together 25 HIV-affected families from across the state at two retreats per year-a four-day/three-night family camp each summer and a three-day/two night family retreat each winter. During retreats, HIV-infected and affected family members will receive social support, people to talk to, therapeutic interventions, information and education about HIV, skill-building exercises to help family members better cope with HIV and its associated stressors, and recreation and respite.

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