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Hibiscus Children's Center — HOPE Program (Healthy Opportunities for Parenting Excellence) Indian River County Children's Services Advisory Committee C. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION (Entire Section C, 1 — 6, not to exceed two pages.) 1 . List Priority Needs area addressed. Mental Health Parental Support & Education 2. Briefly describe program activities including location of services. HOPE counselors work with parents and children in their own environment to help them resolve the crisis that had led to abuse — and reunite them together safely as a family. A HOPE Counselor meets with the family immediately upon receipt of a referral for services. A Family Support Plan is created outlining goals for the family which include timelines and specific service provisions. Concrete needs are identified including housing, employment, education, household management, budgeting, behavior management, substance abuse concerns, and mental health. The plan also identifies any therapeutic issues and services that are to be provided. A typical intervention ranges from 90 to 120 days and consists of an average of 4-6 hours face to face contact with the family per week. This provides contact with the family an average of 16-24 visits per month as opposed to one visit per month by case management. HOPE counselors serve a maximum of 6 families allowing their intervention to be intensive and individually designed to meet the families identified needs. Recommendations are made in partnership with the family, DCF, UFF, and the court regarding all aspects of service provision. The full team from family members, counselors, to all community partners and the court system is fully informed at all times and weekly staffings and continuing court appearances ensure that all parties are working cohesively to ensure the success. HOPE provides comprehensive services which reduce duplication and enable families to access multiple services to address their needs. Provision of services in the family' s home reduces barriers such as transportation, waiting lists for mental health and substance abuse services, accessing affordable housing and child care, acquiring employment, and other issues so evident in our community. Concrete needs are not only addressed, but a plan is devised to increase family functioning and self sufficiency and in the case of reunification, ensure a safe and timely reunification process . Barriers to successful reunification are reduced or eliminated by providing the HOPE umbrella of services. Completion of the HOPE program is accomplished as the goals of the Family Support Plan are reached. Recent follow up of our HOPE program by the DCF and UFF indicated that 100% of the families served had no verifiable incidents of child abuse or neglect during service provision. 3. Briefly describe how your program addresses the stated need/problem. Describe how your program follows a recognized "best practice" (see definition on page 12 of the Instructions) and provide evidence that indicates proposed strategies are effective with target population. Families involved in the chaos and trauma of a child removal are at risk of re-abuse of their children if intervention services are not engaged in a timely and intensive manner. Working with the family in their home on average of 4-6 hours per week creates a strong bond between the HOPE counselor and the family. The development of the support plan with the family (family centered practice) and the immediate attention given to the accomplishment of tasks in the plan keeps the family on track towards their goal. The HOPE counselor works hand in hand with the family in completing the necessary tasks to accomplish their goal successfully. HOPE services are comprehensive in nature and enable families to access multiple services by providing a plethora of services under one roof, which research has proven is most effective and efficient in working with vulnerable families in a family centered, strength based model. A HOPE 5