Illinois Department of Children and Family Services
FFY 2011 Annual Progress and Services Report
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Services; Confidential Intermediary; Illinois Adoption Registry; “Making the
Adoption/Guardianship Decision” handbook; and “Post Adoption & Guardianship Services”
literature. These informational documents are given to the family to explain the process and
services and how to contact staff after adoption. The focus is on providing the adoptive family
and the child with a continuum of accessible services in order to maintain the placement and
assist the family and child in this life-long commitment.
Adoption Preservation Services Available for Adoptive Families
Families created through adoption or guardianship may experience problems that require
intensive services to help families gain stability and to reduce the risk of disruption. The
Adoption and Guardianship 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 families. The Adoption and
Guardianship Preservation Program continues helping families who often feel they are at the
end of their rope, by offering family-centered support and services. Testimonials from, as well
as research with families who have used preservation 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 Preservation Services.
The goals of all preservation programs are to continue to help parents:
Feel better about their ability to parent
Understand adoption and guardianship and its impact on children
Connect current behavior to past history
Understand the child’s past losses
Gain skills to help their child
Each adoption preservation agency can provide services to help meet the following needs:
Comprehensive assessment/crisis intervention - Preservation staff must 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 referral to the program.
Clinical services - The therapist will provide the 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/advocacy services - The preservation 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 the services.
Cash assistance - When 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.
The key to preservation services is that they serve the whole family to keep the family together.
Preservation specialists work with all members of the family, not just the child with problems,
