"This program could not be more in line with our strategy...building families."--Amy Rickman, West Virginia State Director.
The families of West Virginia are about to get much stronger with the help of Necco and the Department of Health and Human Resources Program, Safe at Home. Necco was awarded one of the grants to implement the Pilot project, which begins on October 1, 2015. The program will initially focus on serving children in the following counties: Boone, Cabell, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, Mason, Putnam, and Wayne.
Necco of West Virginia applied for the grant due to their extensive experience working with children and families in this region, trauma-informed assessments, In-Home services and evidence-based supports.The pilot program aims at:
- Ensuring youth remain in their own communities, when possible.
- Reducing reliance on foster/congregate care.
- Preventing re-entry into the system.
- Reducing the number of children in higher-cost out-of-state placements.
- Stepping youth down from congregate care in order to reunify them with their families and communities.
West Virginia State Director, Amy Rickman, is anxious to get the ball rolling with this program. “There are children in out-of-state residential facilities. This program is going to enable us to bring these kids back home and give them permanency, whether that be with their parents, a relative, or through adoption. Further down the line, Safe at Home is going to allow us to keep children at home and wrap services around that family."
Necco will be hiring four facilitators to handle the roughly forty clients Necco's program will be serving. For a listing of Safe at Home job openings, stay connected to the Necco Careers tab at http://www.necco.org/apply_online.