National Abandoned Infants Assistance Resource Center : Direct Service Programs : Directory : Families and Children Together

Strengthening Connections Conference Archive
This conference highlighted the unique parenting challenges among families affected by substance abuse, HIV and/or incarceration, and the importance of the parent-child relationship in a child’s development. More...

Call for Articles
The Resource Center is soliciting articles for the fall 2008 issue of The Source, which will focus on interventions that improve the physical, educational, and psychosocial well-being of infants and young children from families affected by HIV and/or substance abuse. [PDF]

2008 Teleconference Training Series
The Resource Center will host six trainings beginning in April 2008. The topics include the effects of methamphetamine, mental health services for women living with HIV and their children, and working with Latino families. More...

Assessing and Supporting Parenting in Families Affected by Substance Abuse or HIV (2007)
This guidebook provides practitioners and administrators with guidance in assessing, supporting, and strengthening parenting skills and parent-child relationships. [PDF]

National Abandoned Infants
Assistance Resource Center
University of California, Berkeley
1950 Addison Street, Suite 104 # 7402
Berkeley, CA 94720-7402
Phone: (510) 643-8390
Fax: (510) 643-7019
E-mail: aia@berkeley.edu

Family Connections to Resources
304 Hancock Street, Suite 2B
Bangor, ME 04401
Phone: (207) 941-2347
Fax: (207) 990-3316
Email: bkates@mainekids-kin.org
Web site: http://www.mainekids-kin.org/

Project Director
Barbara Kates

Project Evaluator
Dr. Lenard Kaye, DSW

Sponsoring Organization
Families and Children Together

Families And Children Together (FACT) is a small family services agency with five programs: treatment foster care, supervised family visits, adoption home studies, adolescent group care, and the Family Connections Program. For the past five years, Family Connections has annually served over 300 Maine grandparents, aunts, or uncles who are raising their grandchildren, nieces, or nephews. These services have included information, referral, problem-solving assistance, limited case management, support groups, training, and a lending library. In addition, Family Connections serves over 60 agencies and schools each year providing consultation and training on issues related to kinship care.

Becoming an AIA program has allowed FACT to expand the Family Connections Program. We call it Family Connections to Resources. FACT partners with the Maine Bureau of Health, Maine Volunteer Lawyers Project, and the University of Maine Center on Aging to enhance the skills and knowledge of both relative caregivers and professionals who are caring for children who have been exposed to substance abuse and/or HIV, and to link families to resources necessary to increase families’ stability. The objectives are to (1) create respite solutions for families, (2) provide education to caregivers in how to manage the challenges and risks of the children, (3) provide legal services to caregivers, (4) provide education and assistance to service providers, policy makers, and community groups to increase their support of relative caregivers, and (5) enhance skills in providing low barrier services to this priority population.

For caregivers, this project creates a more comprehensive service system that emphasizes low barrier, culturally sensitive services provided in multiple and flexible formats for a mainly rural population. Family Connections annually serves 125 relative caregivers of children who have been exposed to substance abuse and/or HIV. For service providers, community groups and policy makers, we provide training, presentations, and statewide summits to increase their knowledge about the priority population and their ability to provide quality services.