Daniel Kids

CHILD WELFARE/FOSTER CARE SERVICES

Therapeutic Foster Care

Children in foster care often face extraordinary challenges resulting from past traumatic experiences. When they are unable to maintain consistent, healthy placements in traditional foster homes, a more robust care plan is necessary. Our innovative trauma-focused approach combines nurturing, highly-trained foster parents with intensive home-based counseling for children and adolescents exhibiting significant emotional/behavioral disabilities. Treatment parents work hand-in-hand with our clinical team, which includes a therapist and psychiatrist, to help these vulnerable youth learn and practice positive social behaviors in a supportive family setting. This unique program is the largest of its kind in Florida.

Become a Therapeutic Foster Parent!

Being a foster parent is immensely rewarding! You can make a difference by giving a child a supportive home where he or she can grow and heal. The agency conducts therapeutic training and licensing programs several times each year in Jacksonville, Florida. The intensive 60-hour coursework includes hands-on strategies designed to equip each parent with the knowledge and skills to work effectively with their foster children. 

  • Have a safe, stable, nurturing home environment with ample space for up to two adolescents.
  • Have household income sufficient to meet current expenses (before the foster care subsidy).
  • Have a reliable means of transportation with proof of insurance.
  • Successfully complete the 30-hour foster parent preparation course as well as an additional 30-hour therapeutic training course.

Contact: For more information regarding this program or to find out how you can become a Specialized Therapeutic Foster Parent, please contact the Daniel Foster Care Licensing team at [email protected].

Child Welfare Case Management Services

Daniel provides comprehensive case management and court liaison services for children and families involved in the foster care system following allegations of abuse, neglect or abandonment. In addition to ensuring the safety of each child while in the system, our Family Service Counselors act as advocates, helping to strengthen a parent’s ability to provide a safe, healthy home and to expedite reunification. To this end, each parent is linked to community partners for training and support services that address issues such as drug and substance abuse, domestic violence, mental wellness, healthcare, financial instability, employment, safe housing, and positive parenting. When reunification is not feasible, the agency coordinates adoptions into “forever homes.” 

Family Preservation Services

Parents often face day-to-day adversities that can place their families at-risk. The Strengthening Ties and Empowering Parents Program (STEPS) is a highly effective program involving intensive in-home support and advocacy services to help these struggling families remain intact. With the goal of reducing the incidence of children entering foster care, our Prevention Specialists strive to develop family strength and resiliency by teaching families how to access beneficial community resources providing counseling, substance abuse treatment, child care, education, and employment.  In-home support focuses on growing strengths in key family management areas including parenting education, budgeting, and behavior modification.

For families who have been identified as especially at-risk related to child safety, a higher level of in-home services is provided by the Family Assessment Support Team (FAST).  With a goal of preventing abuse and neglect of children and entry into the foster care system, this more intensive family preservation program utilizes the team-based “wrap-around” case management model that also includes counseling services (including infant mental health), parenting education, and substance abuse and domestic violence education and advocacy.