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Programs & Services

"Family Connections": In Home Services

The Family Connections program at Secret Harbor operates on a single philosophical point: Children and Youth should reside in their own families whenever possible and resources should be provided to those families to help them be successful.  The success of the FCR program clearly laid the groundwork for this program which offers biological families the same types of support that foster families receive from the Agency. 

In this program, family-driven care components mean that biological families are empowered and involved in every aspect of their child’s life.  Family members are key decision makers in the development of behavior support strategies and in identifying what things work in helping their child. The focus is on engaging and empowering biological families and providing a framework for establishing support services for families to become successful in integrating behavioral support strategies for their children.  In this model, family members working with our staff receive support services from the Agency that strengthen their abilities to be successful.

Many services are similar to the foster care program such as 24-hour crisis response and planned respite times for youth.  Through formal and informal meetings, family members, State social workers and Secret Harbor staff help develop interventions that involve the family and youth at every opportunity.  These shared decision making activities ensure that the family members are identifying the support that they need from the Agency.  Efforts are made to expand and nurture the natural supports (extended family, community members, friends, neighbors) available to the family so that they can continue to receive help from their community when the Agency services are no longer needed.

Sometimes, temporary out of home placement may be necessary due to safety issues and when families need supports to be in place for their child to return home.  The Family Connections program offers families an opportunity to begin to work toward the return of their child home from the day the child enters out of home care.  Through these efforts, families and youth always have the goal of returning home in the shortest amount of time possible.  With Secret Harbor and the State of Washington sharing that goal, successful planning and positive relationships are possible.