DCCCA INC

DCCCA staff are here to provide support through each step of the journey: from the initial contact, to training and on-going supports once children are matched to a foster/adoptive home. Each family is assigned one DCCCA Specialist who will visit with the family on a regular basis to ensure that their needs are met, with 24/7 support for the family. DCCCA also provides free training, personalized matching, two paid respite days/month, twice monthly reimbursement, individual & family therapy, liability insurance, support groups, and foster family appreciation events. Our programs include Traditional Family Foster Care, which includes Child In Need of Care, Emergency, Respite, Kinship, and Intellectual Developmental Disability care, and Specialized Programs such Serious Emotional Disturbance Respite, Professional Resource Family Care, and Police Protective Custody.

Family Preservation Services (FPS) provides in home, intensive, therapeutic and/or case management services to families in crisis when children are at high risk of out-of-home placement. Referral criteria is specific to the level of service identified to meet a family’s needs in maintaining their child(ren) safely in the home. The goal of family preservation is to prevent children from being removed from the home when it is safe to do so. S.T.A.R.T. is a specialized in-home service for families who have co-occurring substance use and child welfare concerns, including pregnant women using substances and families whose infants were born substance exposed. The approach pairs Case Managers with Family Support Workers, known as family mentors with lived recovery experience, to facilitate timely access to risk reducing interventions and addiction treatment.

The goal of Traffic Safety programs is to reduce traffic fatalities on all roadways. We provide public information and education to protect citizens from avoidable injury or death on roadways with a focus on Occupant Protection, Impaired Driving, Novice Drivers, Distracted Driving, Older Drivers, Motorcycle Safety, and Underage Drinking. The SAFE (Seatbelts Are For Everyone) program is a DCCCA initiative developed in 2008 focused on increasing teen restraint compliance through education, positive rewards and enforcement. This teen run, peer-to-peer program is designed to reduce the number of motor vehicle-related injuries and fatalities among teens in Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Iowa. DCCCA also facilitates We Kan Drive, which provides an opportunity to remove barriers to obtaining a driver’s license for youth in foster care as well as young adults that were previously in foster care that are receiving Independent Living Services through DCF in Kansas.

Prevention programs empower and educate community coalitions to develop substance abuse and mental health preventative services. By working with the Kansas Prevention Collaborative to design and develop learning modules and training resources we are able to address the technical needs of collaborative community prevention efforts. Working with the Partnerships for Success programs in Kansas and Oklahoma, DCCCA Prevention is taking on the issue of prescription drug abuse and connecting with community resources to spread education and resources about the growing epidemic.