#kidscantwait for love
#kidscantwait for a home
#kidscantwait for stability
#kidscantwait for services

Positive childhood experiences are an important public health issue & are critical to children’s well-being & development. #kidscantwait is an initiative of Hope For Youth, one of Long Island’s preeminent providers of services for children and families. Hope For Youth strives to be the catalyst that ensures that children are surrounded by supports that promote stability, growth and health.

 

About

Childhood experiences, both positive and negative, have a tremendous impact on future lifelong health and opportunities. #kidscantwait is dedicated to bringing awareness to the value of positive childhood experiences and their importance for well-being & development. #kidscantwait is an initiative of Hope For Youth which builds on knowledge gained from the Adverse Childhood Experiences(ACEs) study.  We know from this long term longitudinal research that preventing ACEs and engaging in early identification of people who have experienced them could have a significant impact on a range of critical health problems (SAMHSA, 2017).

Young kids entering care is on the rise. With the heroin epidemic on Long Island, more young mothers are giving birth while suffering from drug addiction. It is essential that we reach mothers with intense child-parent psychotherapy to promote the continued achievement of developmental milestones for children.

Substance abuse is intergenerational and children of addicts are at risk for childhood trauma and future addiction. Kids who experience trauma can grow up suffering from psychiatric disorders that exacerbate if left untreated. These individuals then have children of their own who are more likely to experience trauma due to the lack of services a parent received in treating their trauma as a child. #kidscantwait is devoted to providing the critical services necessary to improve the likelihood that these young children in foster care grow into healthier adults.  In addition, providing these necessary supports early on can decrease time in foster care through timely reunification, adoption, or relative placement. It can also reduce re-entry into foster care by providing post-permanency supports.

For almost 50 years, Hope For Youth has provided services for children, youth and families, spanning a continuum of care from out-patient, clinical and preventive services, to foster care, diagnostic and emergency residential services. We work with children as young as birth across the Long Island region. For more information about Hope For Youth visit www.hfyny.org .

 

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Our Work

Specialty Foster Parent’s Needed

#kidscantwait for a loving home that provides them stability and the change to grow up healthy. Give the gift of a family to a child today! Click here to become a foster parent!

 

Sibling Reunification

This program is designed to meet the critical need of the child welfare system to keep sibling groups together. This provides some degree of normalcy to the children in a time of great crisis, trauma and stress. Click here to learn more!

 

 

Family Ties

Provides a safe & supportive environment designed to keep large sibling groups together following a removal from their family home by Child Protective Services. Click here to learn more!

 

Child-Parent Psychotherapy

The primary goal is to support and strengthen the relationship between a child and his or her parent (or caregiver) in order to repair the child’s sense of safety, attachment, and appropriate affect to ultimately improve the child’s cognitive, behavioral, and social functioning. Click here to learn more!

 

Wendy’s Wonderful Kids

The Foundation works every day to make “unadoptable” unacceptable. Click here to find out how Wendy’s Wonderful Kid’s is helping #kidscantwait accomplish their mission! Click here to find out more!

 

 

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Health Homes

Health Homes is a care management service model whereby all of an individual’s caregivers communicate with one another so that all of a patient’s needs are addressed in a comprehensive manner. Click here to find out more!

Resources

“Infants and young children in the United States are exposed to a wide range of traumatic stressors…”

The Impact of Trauma on InfantsCari Michaels, MPH Children, Youth and Family Consortium, Children’s Mental Health Program

“If you’ve parented a child from a traumatic past for any length of time, you already know that traditional parenting techniques do not work.”

3 Reasons Traditional Parenting Doesn’t Work with Kids from Trauma, Mike Berry’s blog Confessions of an Adoptive Parent

Childhood experiences, both positive and negative, have a tremendous impact on future violence victimization and perpetration, and lifelong health and opportunity.

Adverse Childhood Experiences, SAMHSA 

“The quality of the infant-parent attachment is a powerful predictor of a child’s later social and emotional outcome.”

Fostering secure attachment in infants in maltreating families through preventive interventions, Dante Cicchetti, Fred A. Rogosch, and Sheree L. Toth, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota; and Mt. Hope Family Center, University of Rochester

 

More Resources

 

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Ambassador

We need YOUR help recruiting Foster Parents!

WHY: #kidscantwait is an initiative of Hope For Youth. Positive childhood experiences are an important public health issue & are critical to children’s well-being & development. Part of this is having enough certified foster parents throughout Long Island, New York.  There are about 20,000 kids in foster care in New York & Hope For Youth needs people like YOU to help us find foster parents to give kids homes!

WHEN: NOW! Due to the heroin epidemic and other factors more and more #kidscantwait to be in loving homes where they can recover from trauma. Together we can change the trajectory of their fate.

WHAT: Attend family festivities around Long Island, New York like festivals, fairs, outdoor concerts and other places that families spend their time.

HOW: By becoming a #kidscantwait ambassador you can help Hope For Youth educate the public about the need for foster parents on Long Island, New York! Hope For Youth will provide flyers, pens, banners and other great giveaways: YOU be the Ambassador because #kidscantwait

Start spreading the word now and tell fellow community members to reach out to Hope For Youth to attend a foster parent orientation and become a #kidscantwait Ambassador today! 

Contact us now to become a #kidscantwait Ambassador!
Email: kidscantwait@hfyny.org or Call: 631-782-6540

 

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Support our Mission

#kidscantwait is dedicated to bring awareness to the need for services to society’s most vulnerable infants, toddlers and preschoolers.  Click here to support our mission!

#kidscantwait is an initiative of Hope For Youth.
Hope For Youth is a certified 501(c)(3) non profit organization.

 

 

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