Adoption and Guardianship Support (AGS)

The County of Solano, Department of Health and Social Services (H&SS), Child Welfare Services (CWS) hereinafter referred to as the “County,” intends to secure a contract with a qualified proposer to provide Family Support for Pre-and-Post Adoption and Guardianship Families. Eligible families will include: Children and youth placed in Resource Family homes with a primary goal of adoption or guardianship; Children and youth who have previously been adopted or are in legal guardianships and reside in Solano County; Children and youth with an identified plan of adoption, and a family has not yet been identified as their permanent plan; Children and youth who have relatives and/or non-relative kin interested in placement and permanency, however, have some barriers to overcome prior to placement occurring. The goal of the program is to improve permanency outcomes for children and youth who are placed with families or are awaiting placement with families who are making, or have made, a commitment to legal guardianship or adoption, for whom behavioral issues of the youth may compromise permanency, and whose family unit could benefit from direct services based on a wraparound-style model. The program will build upon family protective factors, including enhancing parental resilience, connecting families to social supports, concrete services based on acute assessed needs, training and skill-building activities in the areas of parenting and child development, and supporting healthy social and emotional development of youth within their permanent family. The wraparound process is an intensive, individualized care management process for children/youth with serious or complex needs. During the wraparound process, a team of individuals who are relevant to the well-being of the child or youth (e.g., family members, other natural supports, service providers, and agency representatives) collaboratively develop an individualized plan of care, implement this plan, and evaluate success over time. The wraparound style plan typically includes formal services and interventions, together with community services and interpersonal support and assistance provided by friends, kin, and other people drawn from the family’s social networks. The team convenes frequently to measure the plan’s components against relevant indicators of success and make necessary modifications to the plan when outcomes are not being achieved. The County is open to the proposers offering an alternative style approach to serving families through this contract, with special interest paid to innovative program proposals. Details of this approach must be provided in the response to the Scope of Work below.