Reuniting Youth With Family
Our three other family finding services (the Senate Bill 683 program, 30 Days to Family®️, and Extreme Recruitment®️) are time sensitive. However, we routinely receive inquiries from foster care case management agencies such as “I have a child on my caseload who is going to age out. The child has not seen their family for 10 years. Can you find them?” and “It’s been longer than 30 days since the child entered foster care. Can you help?”
Yes, Family Connections can help. Family Connections prioritizes reconnection over immediate placement. Our Specialists excel at listening to relatives’ concerns and frustrations. Acknowledging trauma associated with the child welfare experience is essential.
I appreciated the amount of effort put into locating relatives. They [the Foster & Adoptive Care Coalition] provided detail on how relatives were willing to assist the child, for example placement or respite or visits. It gave me really good guidelines to refer back to if anything ever happens with the placement. For now, he is doing great with his grandmother!
– Case ManagerThis Specialist helped me navigate a process that could have been really time consuming for me. She made appointments and met family members, saving me a lot of time. She explained things well to the relatives, which was helpful to them.
– Case Manager

What Makes It Unique?
Family Connections takes a unique approach by prioritizing reconnection over immediate placement. This focus on reuniting youth with their family of origin has proven to significantly enhance children’s mental health and overall well-being. By facilitating these important relationships, the program not only addresses needs of the youth, but also strengthens family ties, promoting stability and support. A child’s mental health and overall well-being is enhanced through reuniting with their family of origin.
Who is Eligible?
- A child who has been removed from their home in St. Louis City or the counties of Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, St. Charles, St. Louis, or Warren.
Measuring Impact
Relatives identified
Youth reconnected
Improved functioning*
* measured by the GARF and CGAS/PIR-GAS assessment tools