In just a few years it has grown to over sixty non-profit agencies that work together to help those children and families of Jamaica, Queens who are directly affected by child welfare. Each neighborhood-based organization recognizes the importance of social justice, and works to provide important social services to the community.
Among the organizations that have deep roots in the community is the Urban Institutions Collaborative for Foster Care, an umbrella group which included Forestdale, the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, the Jamaica YMCA, the Greater Allen AME Cathedral and the NYC Department of Education (DOE).
For more information please log-on to: http://www.jamaicacpi.org
Our Goals:
• Connecting to Child Care/Head Start to Preventive Services
The coalition has created a user-friendly resource directory for Jamaica residents in order to give them easy access to information about the Child Care/ Head Start program. This directory also helps families make connections with preventive services.
• Visitations
Family visitations are a vital step towards the re-unification of children, who have been removed from the home, with their birth parents. These visitations are conducted in the community rather than in an agency in order to create a more comfortable and enjoyable environment for families, and to include parents, children, and foster parents. The Jamaica CPI has conducted visits for the younger children at the Richmond Hill Family Visiting Center. Local libraries and the Jamaica YMCA provide good sites for visitations with older children.
• Foster Care Recruitment
Jamaica CPI has partnered with the Greater Allen Cathedral, seeking foster parents from within the congregation. In order to help potential foster parents really understand the positive and negative challenges that fostering a child involves, the Jamaica CPI holds recruitment and training events that help equip foster parents with the tools and knowledge that is needed to raise a child in care. There are also support sessions at the church for parents that provide spiritual guidance and support. The Greater Allen Cathedral has an extensive list of ministries in which children can become involved.
For more information about the Allen Cathedral, please go to: http://www.allencathedral.org/
• Family Case Conferences
Family conferences help build the support and strength that is needed by families with children in care. The Jamaica CPI trains professionals who attend these conferences, helping them to act as a neutral support system for families. These professionals improve what can be a difficult process because they know the Queens community and want to help the families who reside in Jamaica. The purpose of providing representatives at the conferences is to empower families to attain the best outcomes possible for their children, while also building self-determination in problem solving.
• Health and Wellness
Youth Health & Wellness workshops are held every Monday at different locations in the Jamaica, Queens community. Doctors from Jamaica Hospital conduct workshops on topics and issues crucially important to youth and teenagers: sex, obesity, STD’s, drugs, and teen pregnancy. The purpose of these workshops is to educate youth in foster care about their own health and allow them to interact with other teens. The workshops also provide a resource to teenagers who wish to explore the possibility of health-related jobs in their future.
• Education
An Education Work group seeks to address school truancy by discovering the reasons for truancy and, if necessary, offering alternative programs for truant children.
