Illinois post-adoption support

Below are post-adoption support services available to families who live in Illinois. Services may not be available in all areas and/or may be dependent upon the circumstances of the placement. Please check with your post-adoption services provider about the availability of specific post-adoption or guardianship support services for your family. You can also visit Child Welfare Information Gateway for information on Adoption and Guardianship Assistance, as well as additional information on post-adoption support.

Post-adoption/guardianship support services

Families created through adoption or guardianship may experience problems that require intensive services to help them gain stability and to reduce the risk of out-of-home placement.

The Adoption and Guardianship Support Preservation Program recognizes that families built through adoption or guardianship may have characteristics significantly different from those created through birth. This can result in unique challenges for the family. The Adoption and Guardianship Support and Preservation Program helps families who often feel they need assistance to meet their family’s needs by offering family-centered support and services.

Testimonials from families who have used support services reveal that these services worked, while other traditional, less intensive services they had tried, did not. DCFS contracts with agencies statewide to provide Adoption and Guardianship Support and Preservation Services for free to adoption and subsidized guardianship families.

The goals of all preservation programs are to help parents:

Feel supported and empowered in their parenting abilities.
Understand adoption and guardianship and its impact on children.
Understand trauma and its effects on current thoughts and behaviors.
Understand the child’s past losses.
Gain skills to help their child.

Each Adoption and Guardianship Support and Preservation Agency can provide the following:

Comprehensive assessment and/or crisis intervention: Preservation staff will respond by phone within 24 hours and make an in-home visit within three days. A therapist will help a family identify their own strengths, complete an assessment, and develop a family treatment plan within 30 days of the referral to the program.
Clinical services: A therapist will provide clinical services in the family treatment plan.
Support groups: Support groups are offered for both parents and youth at times and locations that meet the family’s needs.
Case management and/or advocacy services: The agency will manage the case and the services as outlined in the family treatment plan.
Children’s mental health advocacy services: If a child has significant mental health needs, the program will provide or facilitate services.
Cash assistance: If a family participating in the program experiences economic hardships or requires specialized services that cannot be obtained through other resources, a cash assistance payment (limited to $500 per family per fiscal year) may be provided.
START (Start Early, Trauma-informed, Attachment-focused, Resiliency-building, Therapeutic services): A customizable and flexible short-term prevention service to address the family’s specific needs. START services are family focused, provide interactive and meaningful activities with children and caregivers, and link families to experienced clinicians trained in the most effective techniques for working with the toughest
situations.
The key to support and preservation services is that they serve the whole family to keep the family together. The subsidy support
specialists/therapists work with all members of the family, not just the child with the identified concerns, to identify ways they can work as a unit. The adoption and guardianship support and preservation service agencies understand the rhythms of the special families they serve and can respond to crisis situations.

Who is eligible for these services?

Families who have adopted from the foster care system of any state.
Families who have adopted internationally or privately.
Families who have guardianship of a child from the state’s foster care system.

Who provides these services?

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services contracts with multiple private providers to offer post-adoption and guardianship support across the state. Additionally, some services are provided directly by the state’s Regional Post-Adoption Support Workers.

For more detailed information about current providers and the post-adoption and guardianship support available to families, visit the state’s Path Beyond Adoption website.

Families who find they need intensive intervention to keep their family supported can call the appropriate agency from the list below.

DCFS Cook County Regions

Catholic Charities (Chicago): 773-630-4122
Metropolitan Family Services (Cook): 630-784-4894
Jewish Children and Family Services: 773-673-2711
Ada S. McKinley: 773-343-2578

DCFS Northern Region

Children’s Home and Aid Society (Rockford): 815-720-2111 (Serves Boone, Carroll, DeKalb, Jo Daviess, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson, Winnebago, and Whiteside counties)
Metropolitan Family Services (DuPage): 630-784-4894 (Serves DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, Kankakee, and Will counties)

DCFS Central Region

Cornerstone (Quincy): 217-222-8254 (Serves Adams, Brown, Cass, Northern Calhoun, Greene, Hancock, Morgan, Pike, Schuyler, and Scott counties)
Lutheran Social Services (Peoria, Galesburg, Rock Island): 309-671-0300 ext. 4237 (Serves Bureau, Fulton, Henderson, Henry, Knox, LaSalle, Logan, Marshall, Mason, McDonough, Mercer, Peoria, Putnam, Rock Island, Stark, Tazewell, Warren, and Woodford counties)
The Baby Fold-Bloomington (Champaign, Springfield): 309-557-1149 (Serves Champaign, Christian, Clark, Coles, Cumberland, DeWitt, Edgar, Douglas, Ford, Iroquois, Livingston, Logan, Macon, Macoupin, McLean, Menard, Montgomery, Moultrie, Piatt, Sangamon, Shelby, and Vermillion counties)
Family Core (Peoria): 309-676-2400 ext. 290 (Serves Peoria, Tazwell, Woodford, McDonough, Mason, Logan, Dewitt, McClean, Livingston, Marshall, Putnam, Bureau, Stark, Knox, Fulton, and Warren counties)

DCFS Southern Region

Children’s Home and Aid Society (Granite City): 618-452-8900 ext. 101 (Serves Bond, Clinton, Jersey, Macoupin, Madison, Monroe, Randolph, South Calhoun, St. Clair, and Washington counties)
Children’s Home and Aid Society (Herrin): 618-452-8900 ext. 101 (Serves Alexander, Clay, Crawford, Edwards, Effingham, Fayette, Franklin, Gallatin, Hamilton, Hardin, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Johnson, Lawrence, Marion, Massac, Perry, Pope, Pulaski, Richland, Saline, Union, Wabash, Wayne, White, and Williamson counties)

Families in counties that are served by two or more agencies, according to address, can choose between the two, or call to be referred to the appropriate agency.

For speciality counseling service needs or services and/or providers outside of those identified here, please contact your subsidy support specialist for availability and prior approval. These services should not be started prior to approval from the Subsidy Support Unity. If you are unsure if the service you are seeking has been approved, please contact your subsidy support specialist.

Parent support groups

Below are support groups for adoptive, kinship, and foster families. Support groups may be offered as part of a state’s post-adoption/guardianship support program, through a statewide or regional foster or adoptive parent association, through specific agencies, or may be run independently. If we have additional information about the group’s purpose or the community served, it’s provided under the group’s contact information.

To add a group or make a suggestion, email the AdoptUSKids family support team.