Depelchin Children's Center

Foster care:depelchin believes every child deserves a safe, loving and healing home. Through its foster care program, Depelchin partners with couples and individuals to provide temporary care for children removed from their birth-families because of abuse, neglect or abandonment. Depelchin understands that each child has its unique family of origin, experiences and needs for permanency. Some children will return to their birth-families, some will be placed with kin and others will be available for adoption. Depelchin provides the support necessary for all children in its care to find a forever family. Depelchin's support includes recruiting, training, and coaching foster families to address the on-going needs of a child (see continuation on schedule o)who has experienced trauma; partnering with child protective services to safely return a child to a healthy birth family; or assist with the consummation of adoption. The commitment to foster a child comes with great rewards and great challenges. In addition to monthly financial assistance for each child in the home, Depelchin's foster care program offers a range of services to foster families, including specialized trauma-informed training, therapeutic counseling, in-home support and 24-hour crisis intervention. In 2023, Depelchin provided 131,245 days of care for 742 abused and/or neglected children and maintained an overall placement stability of 98%.

Residential treatment center:depelchin's richmond residential treatment Center program provides 24-hour residential care for children ages 5-12 who are struggling with severe mental, emotional, or behavioral problems that inhibit normal functioning in a family setting. The program works to help children develop the coping methods, internal control, and social skills they need to transition to a home environment. Support services include psychiatric, psychological and trauma evaluations; 24-hour short-term intensive treatment; medication management; individual, group and family therapy; milieu, recreational and art therapy; individualized education; life skills classes; and ongoing outpatient therapy after residents leave the program. (see continuation on schedule o)richmond residential treatment program:in 2023, Depelchin provided 644 days of care for 10 children with severe emotional and behavioral problems.

Prevention/early intervention and education (pei):depelchin offers prevention/early intervention, counseling and parent education programs to promote healthy families and keep children from entering the child welfare/juvenile justice systems. The evidence-based programs help in two primary ways: first, by decreasing the future need for more intensive services and second, by reducing the need for intervention by child protective services or law enforcement. Depelchin's pei services target issues such as family conflict, youth alcohol, tobacco and drug use, bullying and school drop-out. Through its parent education classes, Depelchin helps parents build and maintain healthy relationships with their children and work through family issues (see continuation on schedule o) such as conflict and divorce. The triple p positive parenting program also provides resources and information to support parents in dealing with common parenting discipline challenges. This program focuses on identifying the causes of child misbehavior, how to effectively manage it, and ways to promote healthy child development. This program helps participants learn how to incorporate strategies both in their daily lives and in situations involving higher risk. This program is provided in a home-based format where parents receive up to one hour of services for approximately 12-16 weeks. In this program, all participants receive standard triple p, which is a 10 session program focusing on concrete behavioral interventions. Families that exhibit a greater need based on parenting assessments or families that express a desire for additional services may also receive pathways triple p, an additional 5-session program that focuses on managing anger, changing negative thinking patterns about children and being more positive as a parent. In 2023, Depelchin served 6,634 individuals through its prevention/early intervention services and parenting programs.tags program:depelchin's transitioning to adulthood through guidance and support (tags) program serves young adults who have aged out of foster care without a permanent family. Established in 2013, tags provides an individualized, secure, supportive environment with opportunities for former foster youth to grow socially, emotionally, and financially. The goal of the program is to help young adults exiting foster care become independent, productive, educated, self-sufficient members of the community. Former foster youth from anywhere in Texas are eligible to participate. New residents usually enter in need of help with enrolling in school and finding employment: 58% of incoming tags participants are neither working nor attending school. Within ninety days of beginning the program, 100% are in school and/or working at least 80 hours per month, laying the groundwork for life as independent, self-sufficient adults. Tags houses 20 young women and men aged 18-22 who live in the elkins building on the Depelchin campus. Depelchin also has an agreement with Texas southern university (tsu) for a small number of young adults served by tags and enrolled with the university to live on the tsu campus.tags provides individualized case management with skill-building opportunities tailored to each resident's need and interests. Youth may participate until their 22nd birthday, and most graduate from the program within 12-18 months. In 2023, the tags program served 33 young adults.depelchin Children's Center offers parenting services specifically targeting fathers residing in the greater houston area with children birth to eighteen years old. Fathers, grandfathers, male caregivers, and caregivers that identify as male/father are eligible for services. The fatherhood focus services utilize the evidenced based model 24/7 dads program. This program is offered in twelve sessions and provides an array of parent education focusing on the importance of the father role in a child's life. In addition to the 24/7 dads curriculum services include co-parenting and case management services. 300 clients were served in 2023.counseling services are provided by masters level clinicians in office and school-based settings for identified youth in Depelchin's foster care programs in greater houston, austin, san antonio, and lubbock. Services are provided to youth six years to eighteen years old and their families. Evidenced based counseling modalities utilized include solution focused therapy, trauma focused cognitive behavioral therapy, and trust based relational intervention. All clinicians are trained and certified as appropriate for the therapeutic modalities utilized. Therapeutic modalities are selected that best fit the presenting issues and will lead to positive outcomes for the youth and their family. In 2023, 2,017 clients were served for counseling services.school based prevention services are provided to identified schools in the greater houston community with higher risk youth. Evidenced based interventions include life skills and positive action by trained and certified bachelor level prevention specialists. Life skills and positive action are 10-13 sessions that focus on character development that encourage students to create goals, connect with their community, and build personal value. These skills help youth to make life choices that avoid risky behavior that may impede their life goals. 2,867 clients were served in 2023.

Form 990, part iii, line 4d, other program services:adoption:depelchin believes every child deserves a forever family. When children in foster care cannot be safely reunited with their birth families, adoption is often the most desirable goal. Most of the children adopted from foster care are adopted by foster parents. In Depelchin's foster care adoption program, Depelchin partners with couples and individuals who are interested in building or expanding their families by adopting the children they have parented through foster care. The individuals and couples receive training and support that prepares them as both foster and adoptive parents. This integration of foster care and adoption helps to reduce the traumatic effect of losses experienced by the child while in foster care by limiting the number of placement moves from one family to another. It also expedites the process for achieving permanency for children. Through its private infant adoption program, Depelchin supports couples and individuals desiring to adopt an infant. In addition, Depelchin works with birth parents considering placing their child with a loving, adoptive family. In 2023, Depelchin placed 113 children for adoption.

Post-adoption counseling:depelchin recognizes that adoption is a lifelong journey - one shared by adoptees, birth parents and adoptive families. Depelchin's post-adoption program supports each person on the adoption journey, including search and reunion. Depelchin's post-adoption services help strengthen and preserve families who have adopted children who were in the care of child protective services or through private adoption. Depelchin's search and reunion services support individuals seeking to reconnect with an adopted child or a biological family member. In 2023, Depelchin supported 78 individuals with private post-adoption only.