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Child Abuse Prevention Month Is a Time To Be a Champion For Children

April is child abuse prevention month
April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, which puts a spotlight on one of our most important goals here at DePelchin: keeping families safe and healthy and, when possible, intact.
DePelchin uses a range of programs to help families and prevent any form of child maltreatment. Our programs to prevent abuse and help families include:
  • Counseling services to support children and parents. Our clinicians help DePelchin clients facing any number of mental health issues, from substance abuse to anxiety to depression.
  • Parenting classes. These programs help equip parents with the strategies and approaches they need to maintain loving, caring homes for their children — including programs that are specifically focused on fathers and their unique roles in their children’s lives.
  • The DePelchin Family Resource Center in the Spring Branch area of Houston. This is a one-stop shop for families seeking a variety of services. Families who visit the center can, for example, sign up for parenting or counseling services or learn about other available forms of support from DePelchin and other organizations.
Our foster care and adoption programs also play a vital role in providing temporary and/or permanent care for children who have been victims of maltreatment.
Throughout the month, we will be drawing attention to the need for all of us to be Champions for Children and help prevent abuse. For example, we are tying blue ribbons along the fencing at our Houston office as a way to recognize the 5,622 victims of child abuse or neglect in Harris County last year.
We will also recognize these victims with a display of pinwheels at Discovery Green Park in Houston for part of April, with each pinwheel petal representing one victim.
It’s important that we remember these victims of abuse throughout the month and beyond and that we all work together to strengthen families and keep children safe. We are grateful for the many DePelchin supporters who help us offer these programs and we ask that you continue to support our efforts to keep children safe and healthy throughout the year.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE CHAMPION FOR CHILDREN ACTION GUIDE

Different Ways to Celebrate Black History Month as a Family

By the DePelchin Joshua Williams and DeWayne Booker

February is Black History Month — a great time for families to explore together the stories of Black leaders, difference-makers, and individuals throughout the country’s history.

DePelchin’s Fatherhood services, suggests that families try to find engaging ways to recognize the month. For example, families can:

There are plenty of good online resources for parents and caregivers who want to teach children about Black history. For example, PBS has compiled games, discussion topics, history lessons, and many other ways to engage children on the topic. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture has published resources to help parents, caregivers, educators, and others talk to children about race.

Black History Month gives all families a chance to learn and explore together and to help children better understand the past and the present. We encourage all parents to celebrate this month with your children and help them understand and appreciate its importance.

The DePelchin Fatherhood Services offers guidance to parents in one-on-one and group settings. Please visit the Fatherhood services page on the DePelchin website for more information about the program.

 

  • Released: February 15th, 2023 07:00 AM

The Women of AKA Helping DePelchin

A group photo of a sorority gathering in front of a donation station

(HOUSTON) — The women of Alpha Kappa Alpha spent Martin Luther King, Jr. Day organizing toys, diapers, clothing and other donations for children and families who may need them in the coming months.

The Alpha Kappa Omega chapter volunteered helping to organize the DePelchin Children’s Center Donation Station. DePelchin provides a range of services to children and families in the Houston area and other parts of Texas, including foster care, adoption, counseling and parenting classes. The organization also sponsors events throughout the year to help ensure children in the foster care system have diapers, school supplies and gifts at the holidays. After a busy holiday season in which the organization collected gifts for more than 1,400 children in its care, the Donation Station was in need of sorting and organizing.

“We are beyond grateful that the members of Alpha Kappa Alpha were so generous with their time and energy,” said DePelchin CEO Jenifer Jarriel. “Their efforts will allow us to help more families in a timely way throughout the year. Organizing the Donation Station allows us to get essential items like clothes and diapers to the families who need them most. This event will provide a great launching pad into all the work ahead in 2023.”

Alpha Kappa Alpha is often hailed as “America’s premier Greek-letter organization for African American women.”

DePelchin Children’s Center is one of Houston’s leading providers of services for children and families, including foster care, adoption, counseling and parenting programs.

 

  • Released: January 19th, 2023 11:30 AM

Learn About DePelchin For National Adoption Month

November is National Adoption Month, which is a time to celebrate the importance of adopting children and youth into safe and loving homes.

Adoption is one of the core services that DePelchin provides in the communities of Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and Lubbock. Adoptive families often begin as foster families. Foster care begins when a child is removed from their birth family and state caseworkers contact agencies such as DePelchin to find an appropriate family to provide care. DePelchin provides intensive training, therapy, and support for these families to help equip them to provide the care needed by children who have experienced trauma.

The process of fostering may last for a year or longer before the family is eligible to adopt the child. If birth parents are unable to complete the court requirements to provide a safe environment for the child, there may be a legal termination of parental rights. At that point, foster families can be adoptive families and commit to provide a forever, loving home for the child.

Another service that DePelchin provides is often referred to as “straight adoption.” The children available for adoption in this process have had a termination of parental rights. However, their previous foster families or group homes have not been available or suitable as a forever home. Their state caseworkers may create online profiles or coordinate media spotlights, as well as contact local agencies like DePelchin to seek out appropriate families who will be the best fit for the children’s unique needs.

The children who wait the longest for a forever family are typically teens, sibling groups of three or more, or children with significant behavioral, developmental, or medical needs. DePelchin has a process to equip families to meet the needs of these children, who have experienced trauma in their birth families as well as foster care. Staff spend months with the family as they learn about a child and the child’s history, to determine whether their family could be the right match. When the child moves into the home, a family will have the support of DePelchin and state caseworkers for at least six months before the adoption is completed.

DePelchin also has a third program, known as private infant adoption. Through this program birth parents seek adoptive families for their children before the child is born. There is an opportunity through private adoption to maintain contact between birth family and the adoptive family as a child grows, should both families be open to it. This is a smaller program, which helps educate birth parents on their options and supports families seeking infant adoption.

Thousands of children are adopted in Texas each year, and DePelchin is always looking for more families to consider providing foster and adoptive care. You can learn more about these programs and sign up for an online informational session here.

FAYS Program Help Families through Counseling

A couple with their adopted sons talking to a counselor

October is recognized nationally as Emotional Wellness Month, which is an opportunity to highlight the many mental health services that DePelchin provides for children and their families. While DePelchin is often known best for connecting children with families through foster care and adoption, helping and preserving healthy families is also a critical component of our work.

Family and Youth Success, better known as FAYS, is one of our key programs for providing mental health services to children and families. FAYS provides free, short-term, family-focused counseling services to youth between the ages of 3-17 who reside in Harris, Fort Bend, and Waller Counties. Typically, a family receives services up to 6 months. Services are available in English, Spanish and American Sign Language.

“FAYS is unique in that our services are free, regardless of income or insurance status,” said Amanda Muery, the Program Coordinator for FAYS. “We are able to provide a variety of therapeutic interventions and modalities including Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Brief Solution Focused Therapy, and Motivational Interviewing to name a few. We offer services for a variety of presenting concerns including social skills, trauma, improving behavioral outbursts, grief and loss, changing family dynamics, depression, and anxiety.”

Families are often referred to FAYS by school counselors, physicians, or hospital social workers. Sometimes families arrive through word-of-mouth from other families who have had good FAYS experiences.

All FAYS clinicians have earned a Master’s degree in a field related to counseling. Each clinician receives individualized supervision to support their progress through the licensure process. During their time with FAYS, each clinician will work towards full licensure as a social worker, marriage and family therapist, or professional counselor.

“Though all three are different licenses, each is able to provide high quality counseling services to FAYS families,” Amanda said. “Ongoing training and professional development are core components of the program, so training opportunities are provided throughout the year to contribute to each clinician’s growth.”

Some families need continued services once they have completed FAYS. Clinicians can refer families who need more intensive or long-term therapy services to community partners who can best meet a family’s needs.

If a family is referred for FAYS or asks about services, DePelchin staff strives to connect with the family within 48 business hours to connect and assess that the program is the best fit for the family’s needs. Families are scheduled at each clinician’s earliest availability.

Any family interested in FAYS services should reach out via the FAYS mainline at (713) 664-3459.

Houston Podcast Explains Foster Care, Adoption Processes

An hourlong feature on Houston’s public radio station last week put a spotlight on the ways that DePelchin serves children and families through foster care and adoption.

Arnold Valdez, DePelchin’s Vice President for Foster Care and Residential Services, was a featured guest on Townsquare, an afternoon radio show and podcast on Houston Public Media hosted by Ernie Manouse. The conversation explained the process of becoming a foster parent and how fostering is often a prelude to adoption. Guests, including family law and adoption attorney Rodney Jones, also emphasized the importance of working with an established, reputable agency such as DePelchin, which has been in operation for 130 years.

Valdez explained how DePelchin staff work to find the right home for each child, and that most adoptions come through foster care or kinship care, which is a type of foster care in which a relative cares for the child.

“No matter how you’re adopting, the process needs to be about the child and less about you,” he said. “It can’t be about getting the family’s needs met. It’s got to be about meeting the needs of the child, and in that process, the family’s needs will be met.”

The show also touched on the fact that there are not currently enough foster homes in Texas for children who need them, and that older children and sibling groups tend to stay in foster care for longer periods of time. Valdez emphasized that DePelchin works with a variety of families — single adults and couples — to find the right home for children.

“We have all different kinds of families,” he said.

The audio of the hourlong interview is available here.

For more information about becoming a foster or adoptive parent through DePelchin, including details about upcoming informational orientations, please visit this page.

DePelchin Provides 900 Backpacks to Students Heading Back to School

A group of kids with new school supplies

Hundreds of children are heading back to school with the supplies they need thanks to the generosity of DePelchin donors.

Throughout the summer, DePelchin donors, staff, and volunteers have worked to fill 900 new backpacks with school supplies such as paper, binders, and pencils and pens. Volunteers have spent many hours at the DePelchin Donation Station in Houston sorting supplies and stuffing backpacks to ensure they are ready for school, which is beginning this month across Texas.  The backpacks are being distributed to children involved with foster care and other DePelchin programs in Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and Lubbock. DePelchin provides the backpacks in order to help students start the year successfully and as a way to support families providing foster care.

The Back-to-School Drive is a DePelchin tradition that recognizes the importance of supporting children and youth not only by connecting them with loving foster families, but also by helping to meet their academic and other needs. The organization also provides school-based, no-cost individual counseling to students in elementary, middle and high schools on 20 campuses and in four school districts throughout Greater Houston and Baytown.

These services are designed to address the social and emotional needs of children and teenagers who may be facing trauma, anger, depression, grief, anxiety, family conflict, or social struggles. If requested by a school, clinicians can also work with students in groups to address issues such as self-esteem, grief, and anger management.

DePelchin is profoundly grateful to all of the donors and volunteers who have made it possible for us to equip so many students with backpacks to start the year. We will continue to support these students and their families in order to help them succeed in school — and well beyond.

News Story on Family That Fostered, Adopted Through DePelchin

A family playing a card game

An Austin-area family that has fostered and adopted children through DePelchin was recently featured on a KVUE news report drawing attention to children and youth who continue to need families to provide them care.

The report put a spotlight on Dan and Alicia Feldman, a Hutto couple who has fostered children for 10 years. The Feldmans have three children — two of whom they adopted after fostering — and currently provide foster care for an 8-month-old boy who came to them straight from the NICU. “Every morning I ask him, ‘Why are you so cute?'” said Joshua, who is the Feldmans’ oldest child.

While Joshua is the only child who was born to the Feldmans, his two sisters are actually sisters by birth. Sibling groups, as well as older children and those with special needs, are often more difficult to place in foster care. The story reports that, at the end of March, there were nearly 13,000 children in foster care in Texas, with more than 1,700 in Central Texas.

The Feldman family has fostered seven children, and they often take emergency placements, which means they get little notice before they are asked to take a child into their homes. They tend to foster children who are 2 years old or younger.

“Every time you hold a baby, inside their little brain it’s like, ‘Yes, yes, yes, this is what I’m supposed to do. This is what’s supposed to be given to me,’” Alicia Feldman said. “So, we hold all the babies all the time.”

DePelchin Children’s Center continues to look for more foster families to serve children and youth in the Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and Lubbock areas. For more information about becoming a foster family and to learn about upcoming orientations, please visit this page on our website.

We are grateful for the Feldman family and all of those who provide foster care through DePelchin. We look forward to answering your questions about providing foster care for children and youth who need a safe and loving home.

A Time to Celebrate Fathers and Father Figures

This weekend is a special time to celebrate fathers and father figures, and here at DePelchin, we are proud of our work to support fathers and the critical role they play in children’s lives.

Much of our work at DePelchin centers on helping parents, from the support we provide to foster families to the classes we provide parents and the counseling we make available to the families we serve. Some of our most popular programs focus specifically on serving fathers. We give fathers strategies that will help them care for children, communicate, and partner with other adults and family members to provide a supportive environment for their children. In fact, earlier this month, DePelchin hosted a two-day summit to provide fathers a chance to learn and fellowship with others. More than 100 people attended, and they heard from experts and had a great chance to share their experiences with others navigating the familiar challenges of fatherhood. Thanks to the support of some generous sponsors and donors, the event was a real success and we hope to bring it back again next year.

If you or someone you know would like more information about our programs for parents, please visit this page on our website.

This weekend, we celebrate the fathers, step-fathers, grandfathers, and so many others who love and care for the children around them. We also want to celebrate the DePelchin supporters whose generosity allows us to offer all programs that create and nurture stronger families. The support of our donors allows us to reach more and more families with all of our programs for fathers, mothers, other family members, and (most importantly) children and youth.

Happy Father’s Day! And to anyone who helps provide a safe and loving home for children: Thank you.