+++ The Northern California Family Center.
(1) Youth Outreach services for run aways, primarily through the Safe Place Program in Contra Costa and Solano Counties, including an emergency telephone hotline.
(2) 24-hour accessible short-term shelter for runaway and home¬less youth.
(3) Crisis counseling and family mediation with runaway and homeless youth.
(4) Psychotherapy with families and children.
(5) Long-term foster care for children aged 1 through 17 years, who may be referred by Child Protective Services.At this time NCFC is recruiting foster parents to provide homes for the abundance of children in need of home placement. We also offer family mediation services for runaways as well as family counseling. This maybe a good resource for families having difficulty with accepting their LGBTQ youth who do not feel comfortable going to the RCC. My personal project for this internship is to recruit LGBTQ foster parents and create training materials and train cis-foster parents as LGBTQ allies.
ORGANIZATION BACKGROUND
The Northern California Family Center is a non-profit, licensed Foster Family Agency that has been serving the needs of youth and families for over 38 years. Our staff are dedicated professionals on-call 24 hours a day to provide experienced clinical care and assessment for a wide range of personal and family problems.
YOU CAN HELP: The Northern California Family Center needs special people, like you, with a little extra space in their home and the ability to provide a caring environment for children in need. Youth may be in ongoing foster care, or brief shelter, including evening and weekend stays. There are all types of foster families, those with children, couples without children, families whose children have grown, working couples and singles.
Many of the youth in our program have histories of abuse and neglect. They need adults, like you, who care.
WHAT’S INVOLVED: In General Foster Care, we work with the county social service departments. We provide foster care to children between 0 and 17 who have been taken out of their families’ home because of abuse or abandonment. General foster care can occur over weeks, months or years. The focus of the program is to provide a secure, nurturing home to facilitate the youth’s development, and independence.
During Brief Shelter, youth, ages 9-17, stay approximately 1-5 days in foster placement with a family. The Northern California Family Center counselors work with the youth and their families for reunification, or to develop a mutually agreed upon alternative living agreement.
Emancipation and work experience are also considered. This program works well for people who are considering providing foster care services on a short-term basis.
“My parents and I got to the point that we were so angry we just couldn’t talk; so I ran away. My counselor at school gave me Northern California Family Center’s number…” Runaway, age 14.
“I’ve never really been able to talk much with my dad. The Northern California Family Center counselors helped me sit down and talk about my feelings without getting angry.” Runaway, age 16.
ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS: Foster Parents must be able to pass a background record check, as well as participate in training related to foster care. Foster parents should have extra room in their home and be able to be supportive and appropriately supervise youth in their care.
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
If your family is ready for a rewarding experience or if you would like to receive further information, please call the Northern California Family Center at (925) 370-1990.
Northern California Family Center
2244 Pacheco Blvd. Martinez, CA 94553
(925) 370-1990 or 1-800-718-4357
