Program areas at CBCCFL
Adoptions as the lead agency for child welfare services in the central Florida region, Embrace Families Community base Care oversees all adoption services for children who exist in foster Care to find permanency with an adoptive family, including postadoption support services. Adoption expenses include subsidies paid to adoptive parents to provide for the Care and wellbeing of the child; adoption assistance including courts costs; and nonrecurring adoption expenses. Expenses also include costs related to the recruitment, training, and background screening of prospective adoptive Families. In fy 2223, 250 children were adopted into their forever Families, and approximately 3,000 Families received postadoption financial subsidies.
System of Care Embrace Families Community Based Care works to ensure the delivery of a complex and integrated local child welfare system of Care for the provision of foster Care and related services: prevention, family preservation, inhome Care protective services, foster Care, residential group Care, independent living, and adoption. Each month on average, 3,000 children are served: about 1,700 of whom are placed in foster Care. Of those 1,700 on average, 1,000 live in relative/kinship Care, 600 children live in licensed foster homes, and 100 live in residential group homes. In fy2223, Embrace Families Community Based Care served approx. 9,000 children.
Financial assistance as the lead agency for child welfare services in the central Florida region, Embrace Families Community base Care provides needsbased strategic financial assistance for children in their Families involved in the child welfare system, as well as providing communitybased supports, assessments and prevention financial assistance. As a result, family stabilization is increased.
Other program services in fy2223, 70 new foster homes were recruited to make a total of 335 active foster Families with 80% of homes being retained. For children entering foster Care, 61.08% were placed in kinship Care with an approved relative or close family friend they know. For children existing foster Care, 50.11% were able to be safely reunified with their family. Children in foster Care age 13 and over receive independent living specialized services focusing on life skills, employment training, mentoring, counseling and aftercare support. Youth who turn 18 while in foster Care that meet certain eligibility requirements are able to receive limited financial assistance to help their transition to adulthood. Embrace Families Community Based Care also in contracted to supports the independent living of these youth in foster Care across the state of Florida through its keys to independence program to provide driver's education training to enable foster youth to obtain a driver's license.