Adoption and Foster Care remains one of Children’s Aid’s highest priorities as we find nurturing homes for some of New York’s neediest children each year. In addition to offering Family Foster Care, our program also provides specialized services including Medical and Therapeutic Foster Care. For teens, we have foster care staff and services providing independent living skills with a focus on those “aging out” of foster care.

In 2009, we placed 75 children in permanent adoptive homes, and provided safety to more than 600 others via foster care. The need for safe homes continues to rise, especially for teenagers, large sibling groups and teen mother-child placements. The Children’s Aid Society is recruiting additional foster parents to offer homes to children needing support and care that their birth families aren’t able to provide. Foster Parenting is a challenging and rewarding way to make a difference in the life of a child.

If you, or someone you know, are interested in learning more about becoming a foster parent, please call us at 212.949.4962 for more information.

Basic requirements for foster parents include:

1. Applicants must be over the age of 21. They can be single, married, or in a domestic partnership.

2. Applicant must be self-sufficient. Applicant’s income can be from employment, pension, or social security.

3. Applicant must complete a state screening/background check.

4. Applicant must complete 30 hours of Model Approach to Partnership in Parenting (MAPP) training, basic training for all foster parent applicants.

5. Applicant must be in good physical and mental health and have completed physical exams for every household member.

6. Applicant must be the lease holder to his or her own apartment or home.

7. Applicant must identify an emergency child care person.

Please consider making an incredible difference in the life of a child in need of a home by providing critical support and care that would otherwise be missing from his or her life.

“Knowledge is Power”

As we journey through life, we accumulate experience, knowledge and, most importantly – wisdom. When we work hard to educate ourselves, we gain what is called sweat equity –or the value that we’ve earned from our efforts.

Education provides a Value that means different things to different people. For the men and women who participate in The Children’s Aid Society’s adult education programs, the value of an education is quantifiable: education makes them more marketable, more able to function and flourish in a highly complex and competitive world.  Children’s Aid gladly provides the resources and support to help them succeed!

Through programs like Families with a Future, Children’s Aid Society parents work one-on-one with a Life Coach who helps them to set goals and a long term self-empowerment plan. Besides offering counseling and family support services, The Children’s Aid Society helps finance their education by awarding grants to qualified students. Other adult services include E.S.L. (English as a Second Language) and computer courses at our technology centers.

Helping families to help themselves – that’s what we set out to accomplish. When we help parents to become productive members of the community, they are better able to provide a safe and stimulating home for their children. They also become role models for their children who, in turn, will share the benefits of their parents’ example and sweat equity.

The Children’s Aid Society was one of the first to provide this specialized foster care. These children need constant and comprehensive medical attention for conditions such as spina bifida, Down’s Syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism, congenital heart disease, cancer, seizure disorders and HIV/AIDS. We place these children with chronic and multiple medical disabilities in appropriate foster, and often permanent, homes. Caseworkers and nurses monitor their progress, and special medical equipment such as wheelchairs, special beds and stair lifts that are required are provided by the program. Important training and support services are also provided to the foster parents, to give the best possible care.

Another area of specialized foster care provided by The Children’s Aid Society is our Therapeutic Foster Care Program, providing foster care and therapeutic services to young people with emotional and behavioral problems. Some of these children have developmental disabilities; others suffer the repercussions of homelessness, abuse or neglect. A social worker and socio-therapist works closely with foster parents, supervising the implementation of an appropriate service plan to deal with the child’s behavior and needs.

These dedicated foster parents demonstrate tremendous commitment, undergo intense training keep logs of daily events, and remain in regular contact with our staff. Children’s Aid has achieved a phenomenal adoption rate with these fragile children.  Therapeutic foster homes are provided in Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island.

To learn how to become a Foster Parent, visit us.

Charles Loring Brace, founder of The Children’s Aid Society knew the value of a stable and nurturing family. Today, Children’s Aid finds homes for more than 500 children each year. And for those who turn 18 in the foster care system in New York, thus “aging out”. The Children’s Aid Society in New York provides additional support so that youth do not lose ground from progress already made.

The Next Generation Center (NGC) is a one-stop center designed to meet the needs of young people transitioning to adulthood and self-sufficiency. NGC provides support, guidance, training and opportunities to young people ages 14 to 24, with a focus on youth in foster care and those who have aged out of foster care. It offers leadership and life skills training, job readiness, educational tutoring, legal and housing assistance, and many more services. Foster care remains one of The Children’s Aid Society in New York’s largest service divisions, and is among its highest priorities. To learn about becoming a foster parent, please visit here. 

CBS News’ Children of the Recession series reports that child abuse is spiking, summer jobs for youth are more urgently needed and are becoming scarcer, and economic stress is hampering children’s performance in school. Perhaps most startlingly, it notes that one in 50 school-aged children is now homeless. Yet, as President Obama has reminded us via the Huffington Post “The homeless problem was bad even when the economy was good.”

The recession has not created issues like child homelessness – it has only made them more prevalent among the middle class.  According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Goldman Sachs predicts the unemployment rate will rise above 9 percent by the start of 2010, thrusting even more New York families and children into deep poverty, homelessness and worse. In harrowing first-hand accounts, ABC News tells the stories of such child victims of the recession in their own words.

Over the last 150 years, The Children’s Aid Society has served the most pressing needs of children through supportive housing services as well as emergency assistance, health services, health insurance enrollment, after-school and legal advocacy.  Now more than ever, your help is necessary. Volunteer or donate today.

For over 150 years The Children’s Aid Society has been a leader in assistance to needy children, with the ultimate goal of helping them become healthy and productive adults. Founder Charles Loring Brace believed that by filling the gaps between what children deserve and what life has dealt them, they would prosper. Education has been an anchor of The Children’s Aid Society; Today, Children’s Aid continues to be an education leader, operating community schools in New York City in partnership with the Department of Education.

Charles Loring Brace knew that the role of the education system should provide more for children than the typical education provided in the 19^th century; it should offer a community of support and multiple services to the child. The phrase “the child is the father of the man” coined by William Wordsworth, was a popular phrase in the 19^th century and was surely embraced by Charles Loring Brace. It speaks to the growth to adulthood requiring a strong foundation in childhood.

The schools operated by The Children’s Aid Society in New York City are open early, close late, and are open evenings, weekends and summers. These community schools serve as more than a place where children attend classes. With a familiar and nourishing environment, children can also receive medical and dental care, speak to a counselor about a problem, stay after school to build reading skills, play chess, work on a computer, take art and music lessons, get help with homework, practice sports and attend summer camp: “school days” that provide a strong foundation to aid in growing to prosperous adulthood. And parents find a new center of their community.

New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) recently marked the beginning of National Foster Care Month with a commemoration to raise New Yorkers’ awareness about foster care, celebrating generous New Yorkers who have opened their hearts and homes as foster and adoptive parents. The Children’s Aid Society in New York, which partners with ACS, began its efforts to help the thousands of homeless, abused and orphaned children living on the streets of the city in 1853. That program, called the Orphan Train Movement, is still recognized as the foundation of the modern-day foster care system in the United States.

Today adoption and foster care constitute one of The Children’s Aid Society’s largest service divisions, and among our highest priorities, as we continue to work for the nearly 17,000 children living in foster care in New York. National Foster Care Month is a great opportunity to highlight this continuing need — thanking foster families and social workers who care for children — and encouraging New Yorkers to become foster parents, volunteers or mentors. Many foster care alumni have taken that crucial early support and mentoring to go on to many great things in life.

New York’s Children’s Aid Society finds safe and nurturing homes for more than 640 needy children a year, a powerful statement of commitment and care. In addition, we also provide many specialized services for youths and families in the foster care system. Learn more about becoming a foster parent.