Children's Home Society of Virginia

CHS's My Path Forward Program (MPF) provides housing and holistic support services to youth who have experienced traumas that resulted in them being placed in - and ultimately aging out of -the foster care system without a permanent family. MPF's comprehensive services include six major categories of support: 1) safe, stable housing; 2) post-secondary education and vocational training; 3) employment and workforce development training; 4) financial literacy training; 5) physical and mental healthcare; and 6) permanent relationships with supportive adult mentors. MPF provides permanent housing through a partnership with the nonprofit Better Housing Coalition. MPF serves two categories of clients: youth ages 18-21 who are eligible to receive some financial assistance thru Virginia social service agencies (MPF Independent Living Arrangement) and youth ages 21-25 who are not eligible to receive state social services subsidies (MPF Legacy). All program participants are provided MPF's collaborative service model that embraces a best practice, trauma-informed and equitable approaches to equip aged out foster youth to thrive as independent adults.

CHS's Post Adoption Services provide a lifetime of support to adoptive families to keep them intact and remain healthy, which includes parent coaching, family supports, and respite care to children and their families after their adoptions have been finalized. Our Post Adoption Program ensures adoptions are successful by: 1) helping adopted children learn to feel safe, trust and function as part of a healthy family; and 2) equipping adoptive parents to meet the special needs of children who have experienced significant abuse, neglect and/or abandonment by a relative or caregiver. CHS is part of Regional Consortiums of providers who offer post adoption services in both Central and Northern Virginia. Consortium services include client information/referral supports, family education, client training, supportive advocacy for children, case management, peer supports, clinical services and planned respite.In addition to ensuring adoptions are successful, CHS also serves adult adoptees by helping them learn about - and when possible connect with - their birth families.

CHS's Foster Care Adoption Program recruits, trains and supports adoptive families for children who are waiting in the foster care system for a permanent family. We serve children who are in the custody of local social service departments because they have been abused, neglected and/or abandoned. Our adoption team uses best practice, trauma-informed approaches as we collaborate with local social service agencies and private therapists to meet the permanency needs of waiting foster children. The children CHS serves are often considered "more difficult to place" because they are older, part of a sibling group and/or have significant trauma histories.