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| Community Budget Issue Requests - Tracking Id #3019 |
| His House Children's Home |
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| Requester: |
Iris Marrero |
Organization: |
His House Children's Home |
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| Project Title: |
His House Children's Home |
Date Submitted |
1/14/2005 4:42:38 PM |
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| Sponsors: |
Rodolfo Garcia |
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| Statewide Interest: |
| His House Children's Home seeks to address the need for adoptive families for the growing number of older children and sibling groups in the state custody, through recruitment efforts and supportive services. |
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| Recipient: |
His House Children's Home |
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Contact: |
Iris Marrero |
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20000 NW 47th Avenue, Building 6A |
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Contact Phone: |
(305) 430-0085 |
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Opa Locka 33055 |
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Contact email: |
imarrero@hhch.org |
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| Counties: |
Dade |
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| Gov't Entity: |
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Private Organization (Profit/Not for Profit): |
Yes |
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| Project Description: |
| His House Children's Home has provided a safe and loving home for abused and neglected children since 1996. Our agency is licensed and contracted by the Florida Department of Children and Families as a shelter and child-placement agency. Currently, we care for 52 children in our residential program and 46 in foster care. As a result of the privatization of the Department of Children and Families we expect our child population to grow to 250 children by February 2005.Our philosophy and model of care is unlike the typical shelter. Each of our cottages is staffed with loving house parents and supportive child-care professionals nurturing the children. A single cottage provides a home for approximately twelve children who are treated to a cozy and home-like environment. A family environment is achieved by modeling cottage layout like that of a typical home, including a kitchen, living room and bedrooms all with a warm, personal touch. Licensed as Child Placement agency, the organization has successfully completed 50 adoptions, many of these of sibling groups of three or more and or children over the age of eight years old. As children continue to come into care, providers face the challenge of identifying permanent homes for sibling groups, in addition to older children. It is the goal of this project to increase the number of adoptions by the launching a "State wide Adoption Campaign" with the purpose of reaching more families and achieve greater numbers of stable loving homes for children in care. His House provides all necessary services in order to complete this process, this includes but not limited to, MAPP training, home studies, In Service Training and on going support by diligent case managers. His House has several main goals. First, we desire to establish permanency, parent retention and streamline the adoption process. We will first accomplish this by our Pre and Post Counseling Services. This would be open to all parents we are in contact with, including biological parents searching for reunification, prospective foster and adoptive parents. By offering these preventative services to our children, we build their character for a lifetime and equip them with the developmental assets necessary to decrease the chances of their engaging in at-risk behavior. We will foster in them the opportunity to gain awareness, knowledge, skills and creative outlets needed to change behaviors that might put them in danger later on in life. In addition, we have added the legal component to our team in order to shorten the time it takes to process each adoption case, resulting in permanency and parent retention, as well as provide invaluable legal counsel for social workers who advocate for child rights in court. With the hiring of key personnel, including Additional Social Workers and an Area MAAP Trainer and Recruiter we will fill our team with culturally competent and qualified staff that will co-labor with us in this unprecedented child-care expansion that looms before Miami-Dade County and His House Children's Home. |
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| Is this a project related to 2004 hurricane damage? |
No |
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| Measurable Outcome Anticipated: |
| Increase the amount of adoptions within the State of Florida in addition to out of State permanent placements by 35% within one year. Of this population, 20% of children would be over the age of 8 years and/or sibling groups of three or more children. |
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| Amount requested from the State for this project this year: |
$250,000 |
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| Total cost of the project: |
$350,000 |
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| Request has been made to fund: |
Operations |
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| What type of match exists for this project? |
Local |
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Cash Amount |
$100,000 |
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In-kind Amount |
$10,000 |
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| Was this project previously funded by the state? |
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No |
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| Is future-year funding likely to be requested? |
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Yes |
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Amount: |
$250,000 |
To Fund: |
Operations |
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| Was this project included in an Agency's Budget Request? |
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No |
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| Was this project included in the Governor's Recommended Budget? |
Yes |
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| Is there a documented need for this project? |
Yes |
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Documentation: |
His House seeks to be part of a solution to the growing challenge of the adoption of sibling groups |
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| Was this project request heard before a publicly noticed meeting of a body of elected officials (municipal, county, or state)? |
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No |
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| Is this a water project as described in Section 403.885, Laws of Florida? |
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No |
