Special Kids - Special Families Inc

Child Placement Agency Services served 99 youth in the foster care program in 2024. The foster care program became licensed by the State of Colorado in 2002. A request by El Paso County Department of Human Services was to develop a foster home network with the skill and capacity to work with youth with developmental disabilities. Since that time, other children with unique situations, especially youth with LGTBQ needs, are currently being addressed in some of the home settings. The locations of foster homes are throughout EL Paso, Teller, and the Denver Metro area. Referrals are received throughout the State. Family resource homes provide respite care to youth from birth families to other foster homes. In late 2021, the family resource homes began accepting referrals for youth in need of foster care through behavioral health referrals. These services have also expanded to include active involvement as a resource provider for the Colorado Crisis System. This system is designed to address the crisis needs of youth who are at risk of hospitalization. Respite care then becomes an alternative to out of home care. In addition, the program is an approved provider for services under the youth Medicaid Waiver systems for the Children's Habilitation Residential Program (CHRP) and the children's Extensive Waiver Program. The services include placement, respite care, mentoring and community connections; all aimed to support the family and youth. Families are receiving training in the areas of crisis intervention, trauma, diverse populations and working with various systems of care. In 2024 the program had more than 38 foster home and family resource homes.

Adult Services served 93 clients in 2024. The adult day services program provides community- and facility-based programming for adults with disability, age's 18-seniors. The program allows the individuals to plan a schedule to have one or both options. Individuals can attend classes in the facility on one day and then choose to have community activities on the following day. The individuals served have a direct care provider who is trained to administer medications and attend to other medical needs. The Licensed Professional nurse trains the direct care staff, and furthermore offers classes to the community providers in need of Qualified Medication Administration Program. Care plans are created by the program nurse, who maintains close communication with parents/caregivers of the clients to ensure that support can be infused into the daily care, such as specialized diets, g-tube feedings, and adaptive equipment. The facility classes include yoga, current news discussions, themed activities, recreation, music and the arts. Infused in the program is the horticulture experience of the outdoor garden. The creation of the garden offers a haven for clients and the opportunity to have adaptable equipment to engage in the seeding, growing, tending and harvesting of the produce. Sensory activities such as digging in the soil, touching the plants, empowers clients to have direct experience. The program has been fortunate to have received various local and state grant funding to support this project. Additionally, the horticulturist is also a clinician in the community who specializes in working with people with disabilities. The community-based program allows adults to engage in recreation within the community. The community-based program had been limited in clients being able to participate in the community. The program leadership have work diligently to increase community opportunities and lengthen the time in the community with a future goal of re-establishing the amount of time and involvement in the community. Two additional programs added to adult day services in the Building Connection. This group meets weekly to participate in relationship building activities to tackle social isolation and loneliness for clients. The success is that the group has full participation. A monthly caregiver support event occurs on weekends to further address social connections with fun themes; and give the parent/caregiver a chance to have a break. This program is well attended with an occasional wait list. In November 2021, the adult day program was approved to provide home care services to clients in the community. This program is currently under process for attending to clients in their own home. This program allows a continuum of care support to individuals with disabilities.

Zach's Place is a licensed care center that provides services to children ages 2 to 21, many of whom have developmental disabilities. We opened our doors in June of 1999. Children are provided with life skills education, develop critical safety skills, and are immersed in community inclusion activities. Families who enroll in the program schedule the care they need, including before and after school, weekdays, evenings, weekends, and overnight care. We are available 24/7. Approximately 50% of the care we provide is paid for using an 'ability to pay' fee schedule, which averages $4.46 per hour despite actual costs of $30 per hour. Among our families served, 60% are low income by HUD standards (38% have a household income of less than $30,000 with 35% earning between $30,000-$59,000 per year) and 33% are single parents. Zach's Place transports children to community-based activities and offers before- and after-school transportation, which assists working parents whose children need specialized after care. The school busing systems in the various school districts often do not suffice and many of the children in our program attend schools that are far from our facility. Therefore, to help these families, we provide as many transportation services as we can. There currently exists a wait list for individuals requesting transportation.

The Behavioral Health program serves the mental health needs of underserved individuals and families, including those without insurance coverage for mental health services, those who can't leave their homes to access services (due to disability, lack of accessible transportation, or caregiving for a person with a disability), and those living in underserved areas. We were approved as a provider by the state's Regional Accountable Entity (RAE) in 2019 to offer counseling and specialized therapy to change behaviors, thoughts, emotions and how people see and understand situations. Our behavioral health team will consider physical, behavioral and emotional aspects of and individual's health and help determine a course of action that is best. Our team is also a CORE services provider for El Paso County DHS, offering family preservation, advocacy and supervised visits to at-risk individuals and their families.