KidsPeace Durham/Chapel Hill, North Carolina Therapeutic Foster Care Program

The OJJDP FY 09 Earmarks Programs further the Department's mission by providing grants, cooperative agreements, and other assistance authorized by the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, as amended, to organizations identified in the Explanatory Statement Regarding H.R. 1105 (Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009), 155 Cong. Rec. H1653 (daily ed. Feb. 23, 2009) (statement by Rep. Obey, Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations of the House).

KidsPeace National Centers of North America, Inc., seeks to establish a new therapeutic foster care program in the Durham/Chapel Hill regions of North Carolina. Families from the community will be recruited, trained, and certified to care for children with emotional and behavioral needs. The goal is to prevent and reduce delinquent behaviors by providing safe and supportive therapeutic foster homes for children who suffer from mental health problems within the foster care system of North Carolina. Specifically, the program aims to: offer at-risk youth in the foster care system an alternative out-of-home placement to juvenile detention and residential centers; provide a treatment-based approach to addressing maladaptive and/or juvenile justicebehaviors; individualize care to meet the unique needs of each child in placement; prepare each child in care for a healthy re-entry to the community upon discharge. The objectives are: initially, within the first 24 months, offer therapeutic foster care to 15 children in the identified target areas; effectively train 20 therapeutic foster families within the first 24 months to meet the specialized needs of children in care; 75% of clients in placement at the end of the school year will achieve the goal of promotion or advancement to the next grade level; increase the number of youth who enter a lower level of care and/or achieve permanency upon their successful completion of the program and their subsequent discharge from KidsPeace therapeutic foster care to permanency-based goal identified at intake. NCA/NCF