Children's Friend

Child care centerthe agency operates child care centers in central falls, pawtucket, and providence. There were 159 children enrolled in the centers in 2023 and an additional 236 through the summer learning and enrichment program. The pre-kindergarten program provides high-quality pre-kindergarten classes to eligible children. Ride oversees the program. 387 children participated in 2023.professional developmentthe professional development program provides quality training programs open to the community, early care educators, and staff of the organization and our agency partners. Approximately 400 employees, members of the external community, and the organization partners participated in the trainings during 2023. Foster care/permanency services the adoption/foster care program provides a full continuum of adoption, counseling, case-management, support and educational services for birth parents, children, adoptive parents and adult adoptees. The program also provides foster care placements for at-risk infants and children ages birth to 10 years who are in need of temporary out of home care, through a contract with the state department of children, youth and families. The program also recruits, trains and assists in the licensing of foster parents.in 2023, adoption home studies were completed for two prospective adoptive families. Foster care services were provided to 43 children, 4 new foster families were trained, 4 families were licensed and 25 previously licensed families remained active, for a total of 29 licensed families.in addition, the program responded to inquiries for information and referrals regarding adoption and foster care related issues.the adoption support and preservation program provides intensive, home-based counseling and case management services to prevent adoption disruption and promote well-being of adoptive families. There were 34 families provided with agency-based support, education groups and respite services. The program also provided training for professionals providing adoption-related services.fostering families provides support services for kinship and foster families. All referrals for services are made through the department of children, youth, and families (dcyf). The goal is to address the needs of foster and kinship families with foster children who are at risk of experiencing removal during the duration of their time while open to dcyf. Services are provided in home, and include but are not limited to: linkage to community resources, court advocacy and case conferencing, intensive case management services, parenting and nursing assessment/intervention/monitoring, mental health assessment and monitoring, and recreational and group interventions. Fostering families provides weekly to bi-weekly visits based on the need of the family and/or child. Services are statewide and can be active for up to 15 months.

Family preservation servicefamily care community partnershipthe organization is part of a partnership of community-based agencies servicing the children and families within the urban core in rhode island. The catchment area includes providence, pawtucket, central falls and cranston. The partnership includes: family Service of rhode island, as lead agency in direct contract with dcyf, Children's Friend and Service, comprehensive community action program, tides family services, the providence center and the socio-economic development center for southeast asians. Each agency has a team that works directly with families.families in the program are at risk for child abuse, neglect and/or dependency or dcyf involvement. Children in the program meet the criteria for sed or have been diagnosed under dsm-iv or dc: 0-3, or are concluding a sentence at the rhode island training school or are leaving temporary community placement.during 2023, the organization serviced 74 families through the family care community partnership. Family child care food programthe family child care food program targets family childcare providers in the core cities of providence, pawtucket and central falls, rhode island; however, it is open to all family childcare providers statewide. Over half of the participants identify spanish as their primary language. There were 132 child care providers that participated in the family child care food program during 2023.kids connectkids connect services support children with emotional, behavioral or medical needs in their classroom so that they can successfully learn and play with their peers. These are children with special healthcare needs who are living at home or with a foster family and now have been diagnosed with certain significant physical, developmental, behavioral or emotional conditions.a total of 40 children received kids connect services in 2023.

Health and nutrition serviceswomen, infants and children (wic) is a nutrition program that provides: healthy foods, nutrition education to improve family health, breastfeeding advice and support, referrals to doctors, dentists and other community services. Wic helps pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and new mothers with babies under six months old, fathers, grandparents, foster parents, babies, and children younger than five years old.the organization provides services under the wic program in central falls, providence and pawtucket. During 2023, 5,224 children and their families received services through the wic program.the first connections program is a home-based outreach Service intended to promote the health and well-being of mothers and their newborn children. Mothers and newborns, with potential risks for healthy development, are identified by the hospital when the baby is born.the organization provides services under the first connections program in central falls, pawtucket, cranston and parts of providence. During 2023, 394 newborn children received services through the program.the healthy families america (hfa) is an evidence-based home visiting program rooted in the belief that early, nurturing relationships are the foundation for life long, healthy development. Hfa requires that families are enrolled prenatally or at birth and services are provided to families until the child's third birthday.during 2023, hfa provided services to 257 participants and their families. The nurse family partnership (nfp) is an evidence-based home visiting program that aims to improve the lives of at-risk, first-time mothers and their infants. The program pairs these young women with specially trained nurses, who conduct home visits prenatally until the child is two years of age.during 2023, nfp provided services to 187 participants. The organization provides services under the nfp program in providence, pawtucket, central falls, west warwick, woonsocket and newport.project connect project connect is a statewide home-based intervention programs. Project connect is designed to address the problems of substance abuse and mental health. The program works with high-risk families involved in the child welfare system. Families are referred by dcyf and services are tailored to meet their needs. During 2023, 146 families received intensive family preservation services amongst these programs.

Early intervention services families and children with developmental delay and/or risk and children with disabilities between the ages of birth to 3 years. Children receive a variety of services, most in a home based or community setting, from a multi-disciplinary team. There were 601 children and their families that received services through the program during 2023.