Our Current Operating Programs (including C2P2)

One Church, One Child of Washington State, Inc. / UJIMA Community Services

Our Current Operating Programs (including C2P2)

It is our desire to connect and share some of the details about our organization in order to be of service to you and the children we serve.

Recruitment and Support Services:

Original ONE CHURCH, ONE CHILD Program - provides recruitment, training, and preparation for families toward permanency planning foster care and/or adoption

· Identify and assist families with preparation and the application packet

· Support and advocate for families for our children as they proceed through the system, until completion of the process

· Facilitate specific child recruitment services in consultation with the child’s worker

· Prepare staff, foster families and the children for placement

· COMPEL Program - provides recruitment & assistance to the entire church congregation and/or community to support our children

· BRINGING OUR CHILDREN HOME Program - provides a specialized specific child and community specific recruitment

· UJIMA Training Programs - PRIDE, Parenting, Kinship, Cultural Awareness/Competency, Bridge Builders Course (for families parenting African American children cross-culturally), Cultural Competency in Placement, and others as requested

Retention Services:

· UJIMA C2P2 (Culturally Competent Professional Practice) Program - an ongoing facilitation design which incorporates a briefing of the process and regular unit and one-on-one “coaching's” of child welfare workers to a culturally competent professional practice delivery.

· Our Family Preserved - This program provides support believing that Kinship Care-Giving is a traditional part of African American culture and that Kinship Care is family preservation in African American families—by virtue of the broader African American definition of family. We believe in strengthening the bonds of the family, the extended family, the formal kinship family and the informal kinship family

· Family and Heritage Preservation Services - This program provides services to families and youth including the UJIMA Support Group/Trainings; pre-service and in-service kinship, foster care, adoption, preparation trainings; prevention and intervention counseling; home-based services; training and referral; other services as requested

· Visitation Supervision and Mental Health Services - These services assist our children and their birth families to keep a strong bond and assist our Permanency families deal with the stresses associated with foster care and adoption.

Placement Services:

UJIMA Agency specializes in the placement of African American children in appropriate homes.

· A family who works with our agency is put through a rigorous training and preparation process before taking placement of a child/children from the child welfare system of Washington State. The “home study” process is a comprehensive self-evaluation and agency evaluation of the family accomplished through multiple interviews, document compilation, and collateral contacts. At the same time, we certify that our family can provide foster care to a waiting child/children. Both evaluations (foster care and adoption) have state mandated procedures, protocols and forms to which we add our own quality assurance measures.

· After a family has been approved for placement, we match that family with a waiting child/children. This includes an examination of the child’s/children’s history and special needs as well as the family’s ability to meet those needs. We purpose to facilitate a smooth and sensitive transition for the child/children moving in with the family.

· After placement, we support and monitor the progress of the family and act as the liaison between the family and the child’s/children’s worker. We advocate for services, provide ongoing support groups (family and children), provide direct guidance and lend emotional support to the family and the child. When ready, we facilitate and prepare the necessary documents to finalize the adoption.

· Foster care/adoption home studies are facilitated as agency resources are available. There are no fees for foster care licensing, the maintenance of the license or the servicing of the license. There are no fees for waiting child adoption except those reimbursable through the State Adoption Support Program

Mentoring Services:

These program (such as Birthing Project) pair community volunteers with young women and men to mentor and prepare them for Rites of Passage and independent living by supporting and mentoring adolescent youth in the Washington State foster care system in King County to make healthy choices as they transition into adulthood. These programs are aimed at fostering life skills, heightening self-concept, building resiliency, developing leadership skills in the youth, and providing an array of positive activities as attractive alternatives to destructive behaviors such as substance abuse, violence and complacency

COLLECTIVE WORK AND RESPONSIBILITY...FOR OUR CHILDREN

Last Update: September 15, 2009