VILLAGE RANCH INC

Foster care program: "a total of 112 youth were served in the foster care program. This includes long term, short term, respite, emergency, and shelter placements. "roughly 13,175 administrative days billed. "7 finalized adoptions "6 placement disruptions: 2 youth runaways, 1 agency decision, sibling group of 3 - emergency placement, very high needs for the family to continue care with the other youth in their home. "closed 10 foster homes. Reason for closing: 4 closed after finalization of adoption, 2 retired from foster care, 1 marital issue that needed to be addressed, 1 to focus on needs of special needs child, 1 took no placements for over 2 years so agency discussed with them closing their license, 1 to focus on their own family (have now reached out to start the process to relicense again) "new licensed homes in 2024: 9 "word of mouth appears to be the best recruitment effort, always looking at additional ideas to recruit foster homes. "continued monthly support group and training via zoom. Training topics are established yearly; tim wright provided the training. There is a total of 8 training courses a year. On the off months, foster parents are sent training links for required training as well as other resources throughout the year that pertain to foster care. "established with mn child welfare training academy and foster parent college as a training resource for case managers and foster parents. This is offered free to our agency. No longer members of yipa for training which had a yearly membership fee. "the quarterly newsletter continued throughout 2024 providing training, tips, foster care news, and additional support to families. The program started a private facebook group for our licensed providers to connect with other providers as well as share resources. "nora and mikaela continue to be an integral part of the foster care program. They continue to gain knowledge within their position and have done a great job there is positive feedback from the families they support as well as placing agents. Mikaela passed her social worker licensure to obtain lsw status. "positive dhs review. "the foster care program completed coa accreditation and is now fully accredited. "total licensed homes currently - 34 "5 pending adoptions that should be finalized between april-june 2025.