Statement by Hope Community Services
As you know, Hope Community Services provides services to children in the child welfare and behavioral health systems with a goal to heal them from abuse, neglect and trauma.
These kids are some of the most vulnerable children, and we are grateful for your partnership in providing lasting solutions to foster safe and healthy communities within Arizona.
HCS has been working hard to expand services and programs to meet the need of our community and this last year has been no exception. Unfortunately, the need for our services has only continued to grow. As COVID-19 has impacted everyone, it has been devastating on our children’s mental health, and in some cases their living situations.
The foster care system has seen an increase in the number of children being removed from their homes while experiencing a decrease in foster homes. This has caused a crisis within the child welfare system due to increased wait times to access all child welfare services.
The goal of achieving permanency for these children becomes more difficult, and these children get stuck in a system of instability that can further traumatize them.
Many of these foster children are the same children we serve in our behavioral health program. Although children’s mental health needs have steadily increased over the years, the pandemic led to an increase in depression, anxiety and suicide attempts, especially for adolescent girls, which surged by more than 50% during the pandemic (CNBC Jun 11, 2021).
We have seen the increase firsthand with referrals for services increasing by 255% over this same time two years ago.
How have we addressed these issues?
Child welfare department
- The Child Welfare Department continues to grow to meet the need. We are actively recruiting and hiring positions to serve these children and families. Current staff continue to work diligently to increase the number of available foster homes while providing ongoing support to our current families. They also provide ongoing training to new and seasoned foster families.
- The Family Reunification Program works tirelessly to ensure that biological parents working toward reunification get the parenting skills training and visits required to meet their case plan goals.
Behavioral health department
- The Behavioral Health Department has increased full-time staff by 366% in an effort to meet referral/service demand. A clinical director was hired in August 2021.
- HCS has implemented a new program therapy structure to ensure children’s individualized mental health needs are being addressed with the appropriate therapy modality. The AIM (Adaptive Intervention Model) allows children with complex needs to move between therapeutic interventions.
- SURGE (Survivors, Resiliency, Growth and Empowerment) was implemented in late 2021. This program is an intensive service that stays involved with minor trafficking survivors as they attempt to break free of life on the streets. We recognize that access to consistent treatment and continuity of care is critical to success. HCS is embarking on a partnership with Arizona State University to study this program and its outcomes.
- Hope’s Horses as Healers Equine Therapy Program — This program has grown over 200% since opening in 2019. The program uses horses as part of the therapeutic process to help children and youth who have experienced chronic trauma resulting from extreme abuse and/or neglect. As part of animal care, HCS partnered with the Arizona Agribusiness & Equine Center High School to provide career technical education to their students. Students work on our farm while earning class credit!
There have been so many more successes that we wish we could tell you about but know that we couldn’t have done any of this without the support of our community. We have been so grateful that we were able to depend on amazing people like you.
Our hope for the new year is to instill more hope into the lives of our community and clients.
Thank you for giving the children we serve hope for a brighter future!
Editor’s note: This statement was provided by Hope Community Services. Visit hcs-az.org.
