Family Reunification Program

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Family poses for a foster family family portrait - a mother and father smile with their daughter and son in a Michigan park.The Family Reunification Program (FRP) in Kalamazoo County is designed to support families by reuniting children and parents in order to repeated foster care placements. These goals are accomplished with intensive, home-based family support services. Since 1999, the FRP has helped united families grow strong and healthy in Kalamazoo.

Keeping Families Together

The joy of reuniting with your children after foster care can be mixed with challenges. Samaritas reunification program is here to help you adjust to living together in a positive family environment once more. Our Family Reunification Program offers IFS therapy, parental training and family support to keep your loved ones strong and healthy. Together, we can help your family grow and change in positive ways.

Family Reunification Program Principles

Children have a right to their family. The family is the focal point of child welfare services.

  • Our first and greatest investment is the care and treatment of children in their own homes and provide parental support in their efforts to care for their children.
  • It is in the best interest of the child for his or her family to remain intact in the absence of compelling evidence to the contrary.
  • Families are diverse and have a right to be respected for the special cultural, racial, ethnic and religious traditions that make families unique.
  • Children can grow up successfully in different kinds of families. One type of family should not be discriminated against over other types.

TEAMWORK

Our team is here to support your family
in whatever way we can

You will work with a family support team made up of a Team Leader and a Family Worker. For about four months, your reunification team will meet with you and your family in your home at times convenient for you. During the first two weeks after your children return home, the reunification team will spend about eight hours per week with you, then about four hours per week for the remainder of the four months.

PROGRAM MODEL

Family Assessments

Strengths, needs, safety and risk

Reunification Services

Therapeutic, supportive and concrete, including parenting classes, parenting and family workshops, and family activities

Reunification Service Plan

Goals, action plans and monthly progress reports

Two-person Family Reunification Teams

One master's-level team leader and one bachelor's-level family worker

Family Support Service Duration

Four months, with a possible two-month extension

24-hour/7-day staff availability

Specific assistance to meet concrete family needs

Reunification Program Evaluation

The Skillman Foundation evaluated the FRP from 1992 to 1995. Their report emphasized the substantial success of the model:

  • 85% of children who completed the program were reunited with their families.
  • 73% of those children remained safely at home with no further out-of-home placements 12 months after reunification.
  • Children who required a repeat out-of-home placement were returned to their homes more quickly than those who had not received FRP services.

Reunification Program Cost-Effectiveness

The Skillman Foundation report also indicated that the FRP was cost-effective for the State of Michigan. The state saved $5,283 per child during the 18-month period following FRP services.

SERVICES

We offer a wide variety of supportive family services to meet the needs of those in the program

IFS Therapy

  • Family
  • Individual
  • Sibling
  • Couple

Family Skill-Building

  • Direct teaching
  • Modeling
  • Problem-solving relapse prevention

Positive Family Environment

  • Safety planning
  • Community support and advocacy
  • Extended family support
  • Household and home improvement

Vocational and Educational Parent Training

  • Advocacy through area schools
  • Job training
  • Employability skills and education

Family Recreation

  • Family activities
  • Social networking

Parental Training

  • Ongoing parenting classes
  • Quarterly workshops
  • Education and support
  • Limited emergency respite care