Foster children have experienced trauma and are now in need of a safe, stable place to heal, grow and learn.
Foster parents work together with biological parents and child welfare professionals, helping families safely reunite whenever possible. Foster parents receive training, monthly financial reimbursement and a mentor. Nurturing families are especially needed for teens, sibling groups and children with special needs.
Please consider making a difference in the life of a child from your community. Learn how to start your foster parent journey.
For those who are not ready to become foster parents at this time, we encourage you to support local foster parents in our community. Learn how you can help.
If you are interested in becoming a foster parent, our specialized team members represent a broad range of expertise and are prepared to help you along the journey.
Lakeview Center, along with FamiliesFirst Network, are both affiliates of LifeView Group, forming a comprehensive human services organization that bridges gaps like no other. While FamiliesFirst Network focuses on ensuring the safety and well-being of children, our behavioral health care teams at Lakeview Center provide essential mental health services and substance misuse treatment for parents. As the needs of children and families evolve, our teams across both organizations collaborate seamlessly, developing innovative solutions to better serve families along the Gulf Coast.
When you choose to become a therapeutic foster parent through Lakeview Center, you have with you the strength of our highly trained team – Northwest Florida’s leader in behavioral health care and child welfare.
Becoming a Specialized Therapeutic Foster Parent means joining a compassionate community that provides love, structure and care for children with unique needs. Our highly trained behavioral health team members at Lakeview Center help match interested foster parents with children based on their individual needs.
These youth are served in specialized therapeutic foster homes, where they can receive intensive support, structured supervision and professional interventions.
CHIPS – Changing Horizons through Innovative Parenting Systems (CHIPS) is a short-term resource (6 – 12 months on average) for children from 5 to 17 years old. CHIPS is a Medicaid-funded program that provides therapeutic foster care for children with emotional and behavioral challenges. This program also helps to address neurodevelopmental concerns, including autism and communication difficulties.
What to expect as a CHIPS foster parent:
• Provide a safe, nurturing home for 9 to 12 months
• Partner with a dedicated clinical team to support the child’s growth
• Weekly home visits from clinical staff
• Attend monthly meetings to discuss progress and treatment goals
• Receive specialized training, guidance and paid respite days
Support services include:
• Weekly, person-centered therapy for the child
• Weekly support for foster parents from a mental health professional to coordinate implementation of treatment strategies
• Additional monthly stipend based on the child’s level of need
• Special foster family support activities and events
• 24/7 on-call support from a mental health professional
If you can help change a child’s life, learn more about becoming a specialized therapeutic foster parent with our team members at Lakeview Center.
For those who are not ready to become foster parents at this time, we encourage you to support local foster parents in our community. Learn how you can help.
When children are removed from their biological homes, often their parents’ struggles involve the judicial system. Current laws and policies require that children be placed in the least restrictive settings that can meet their needs. Relatives or kin are to be given priority in these decisions. Caring teams work to find the most appropriate placement option for each child. If the court decides a child and parent(s) cannot reunite, adoption becomes the goal. Foster parents often step in to adopt or help children transition into those settings.
Foster parents open their hearts and homes to children who can no longer remain safely in their homes because of abuse or neglect. In these homes – called “Level II placements” – children live with one or more non-relative, adult caregiver who has been trained, assessed, and licensed to provide a loving home.
Placing children with a blood relative or close family friend (referred to as kinship care) can help maintain a sense of connection. Both types of caregivers require a background check and a home study to ensure safety and suitability in the home. These same caregivers can elect to become licensed as “Level I” foster home placements, which comes with additional financial benefits and other supports.
This innovative approach involves the birth parents and their children moving into a supervised, supportive setting together.
This type of care is in a family setting with specially trained foster parents. Changing Horizons through Innovative Parenting Systems (CHIPS) is a program through our team members with Lakeview Center that provides therapeutic training and foster homes. Medical foster care homes are operated under the Department of Health, with training and oversight provided by Children’s Medical Services.
Some children have physical or behavioral needs that require the structure and services of residential or group settings, which include community-based group homes, campus-style residential facilities, and secure facilities. Residential programs focus on working with children who have certain special needs. For instance, a group home may be a good option for an adolescent involved in the juvenile justice system or who has difficult behaviors that require 24-hour (awake) adult supervision. FamiliesFirst Network works with our team members at Lakeview Center to provide residential care at Arcadia Place for adolescent girls and Cabot Heights for adolescent boys. We also partner with United Methodist Children’s Home.
Children removed from their birth families may initially go to a shelter in a group facility or a family setting designed to keep them safe while assessing their needs. When appropriate placement is determined, they are moved. Shelter care placements are intended to be short-term. FamiliesFirst Network works with Children in Crisis and Lutheran Services of Florida, as well as our Lakeview Center team members at A New Dawn for these services.
Children and youth placed in long-term relative custody are unlikely to return home to their biological families or achieve permanency through adoption or guardianship. This legal designation is most often used to allow a child to remain under the care and custody of a family member (and in some cases a non-relative) who is willing to continue caring for the child, but does not wish to formally adopt the child.
Children whose goal has moved from foster care to adoption will move into an adoptive placement home until an acceptable match is determined. When the caregiver expresses a desire to adopt the child, the child stays in this home and is considered at-risk because the child is “at-risk” of returning to the foster care system, the parents or being placed with relatives until the parental rights have been terminated. These homes are screened similarly to traditional foster homes to ensure the safety and well-being of the children. This type of foster home is unique to each child.
