Homes for Hope: Innovation in Local Government

About the Program

Category: Human Services (Best in Category)

Year: 2020

The Homes for Hope program is an innovative new approach to emergency housing for foster youth. The Adams County Human Service Department often has a great deal of difficulty finding adequate housing for foster youth, particularly after-hours and on weekends. Foster children in these emergency situations are faced with turmoil and chaos, often split up from siblings and placed far away from schools and support systems. With the purchase and renovation of two beautiful local houses, Adams County has created a new model for social service provision. Homes for Hope provides emergency foster care for children in Adams County ages 0-18 for up to 60 days while alternative kinship home, foster home, or return to parent(s) options are explored. These emergency placements will be exclusively available for Adams County foster children. These homes help minimize some of the chaos in this traumatic circumstance, and allow sibling sets to be kept together throughout their emergency placement. The homes are occupied by two families, selected and trained by a local child placement agency that ensures the homes will be available to receive children 24-hours daily, 365 days annually, even if the assigned families are on vacation, have personal emergencies or are otherwise unavailable.