Illinois Department of Children and Family Services
FFY 2011 Annual Progress and Services Report
367
assist them in better understanding the needs of their children as they process their trauma.
There are also monthly parent support groups. In addition, during this quarter, the CCAC
continued its new Parent Advisory Group. This group is providing feedback to the CCAC
about its programs and services and is developing plans to conduct awareness and advocacy
activities in the community as well. The group meets monthly and continues to recruit
additional participants.
The Children’s Place Association: Respite Care for Special Needs Families and
Children
Parents have once again interviewed potential candidates for open positions, actively
recruiting new families, approving budgets, and were involved in the center’s Self
Assessment.
Hamdard Center for Health & Human Services: Family Preservation
Parent Leadership is successfully achieved when parents and professionals build effective
partnerships and share responsibility, expertise and leadership in decisions being made that
affect programming, families and communities. The expectations that Hamdard has of the
parent representatives is to communicate with Hamdard’s child welfare mental health and
domestic violence programs about the needs and issues that they may have. Also Hamdard
expects parents to be willing to participant in various trainings and activities to enable them
to become better parents. This cooperation is very important because it provides a
connection to the community, builds a system of support and reinforcement for families,
and facilitates the necessary skills and knowledge. Hamdard offers a domestic violence
advocacy training program to community members, especially parents, to attract them to
the program. Hamdard Center’s after-school youth program also hosts monthly parent
meetings to encourage parent participation and to gain feedback for the program.
Hamdard’s has determined that parent involvement is critical with our program because the
hope in this program is to keep children with their biological families to preserve the family
unit. Within the program parents are trained and educated on how to become effective
guardians and how to maintain a safe and healthy home. Parent participation and feedback
is critical to this goal and ultimately to reunite the children with their parents.
Lydia Home Association: Safe Families for Children
This program encourages parents to tell other parents they know who may be going through
a tough time about their experience with the program. Since lengths of stays are only 40
days, parents do not routinely stay involved with the program. However, many host
families maintain ongoing contact with them placing parent after the kids are returned to
them. The most important part of the program is the ongoing relationship between the two
parents.
Illinois Central College: Growing Together Program
The program promotes and encourages parental involvement and leadership roles as
evidenced by the following:
Promoting and encouraging parents to take charge of their educational needs as
well as those of their children;
