Placement
When remaining in their home is at risk or
no longer a safe option.
We step in to assist with placement options.
Ranging from full-time residential facilities to foster care services, we help create an maintain stable and healthy environments for kids.
Youth Farm
A trauma-informed approach to help youth stabilize behaviors.
CHAIL’s Youth Farm program campus provides youth ages 8 – 20 with a safe space to address behaviors and redirect emotions in a healthy way. Clients in this program receive ongoing sessions with one of our clinical therapists, assistance in stabilizing medications through an on-campus nurse, around-the-clock staff supervision and support, and activities that are both recreational and therapeutic. The goal of this program is to stabilize behaviors that stem from trauma, so clients can reintegrate to a less restrictive living environment.
Referrals to our Youth Farm campus come by way of the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice (IDJJ), the Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS), the Department of Human Services (DHS), and the Illinois State Board of Education. Private referrals are not accepted at this time.
There are currently three cottages and one group home located on our Youth Farm campus. All of our cottages, as well as our group home, house 10 youth at a time.
“It feels very good to know that people want to see me succeed and they want the best for me.”
— former client
Supervised Independent Living Program (SILP)
Transitional and independent living for young adults.
Transitional Living Program (TLP)
Youth in our TLP share a house with 6-8 other individuals of the same sex. Each home has round the clock supervision. In this program, youth are provided with tools to secure and maintain a job, budget, meal plan, access public transportation, and learn about community engagement and resources. It is the goal of this plan to create and foster productive members of society who will seamlessly transition into independent living in the next phase of their lives.
At this time, only males ages 17.5 – 21 with an IQ of 70 or greater are eligible for this program.
Independent Living Option
The Independent Living Option allows for youth to move into their own residence. Despite not having round the clock supervision, youth in this program maintain a regular relationship with Children’s Home staff. They receive feedback on hygiene, apartment upkeep, meal planning, recreational planning, and more. Budgeting assistance and oversight is provided until they are discharged from the program at 21 years of age.
In addition to the life skills provided by staff, youth in this program may elect to receive counseling services from Children’s Home behavioral health team.
This program is currently open to young men and women ages 17.5 – 21. In order to be eligible for consideration, youth are expected to have maintained a job for at least 45 days and have a high school diploma or GED.
Developmentally Delayed Transitional Living Program (DDTLP)
DDTLP services are similar to the services offered in TLP, except these homes are specifically designated for youth with an IQ of 69 and below. The goal of this program is to prepare youth for independence in the least restrictive environment possible. As such, life skills and programming with this group of clients may differ based on cognitive ability.
At this time, only males ages 17.5 – 21 with an IQ of 69 or below are eligible for this program.
Interested in learning more about transitional and independent living?
Foster Care
Consider opening your heart and your home to a child in need.
Foster Care provides temporary homes for children and adolescents who have been removed from their parents due to abuse and neglect. Services are given to the children, their natural parents, and current foster parents. The goal of this program is to help all foster children find permanency in their lives. Sometimes this looks like reunification with their natural parents, other times it looks like adoption or guardianship with loving, capable caretakers, and other times it looks like a transition into self-sufficient young adulthood.
Our agency supports both traditional foster care and specialized foster care. Specialized foster care is designed for youth so traumatized by their life circumstances that they develop a number of chronic behavioral and emotional problems or for youth with medical needs and require extra attention. The program provides intensive treatment services for clients while working closely with the foster family to create stability and support. Most clients in this program are teenagers with special education and additional therapeutic service requirements.
If you would like to explore opening your heart and your home to a child in foster care and becoming a foster family, learn more here, email Andrea Roberts, [email protected], or call 309-210-1901.
Children’s Home Association of Illinois is an Illinois Licensed Child Welfare Agency. License number #004259-14.
Intact Family Services
Children need their families and families need their children.
Intact Family Services is a voluntary program designed to keep each family intact when the threat of separation is real. This program works with at-risk families who have been referred for continuing assistance and monitoring following a child abuse and neglect investigation with the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). The goals of this program are to enable children to remain safely in their home, make reasonable efforts to keep families together, address and resolve the issues that place the children at risk, and to avoid having children separated from their family.
Our caseworkers will help your family develop a short-term, agreed upon plan to make the changes that will help keep your children safe. They will act as a support system and resource without judgement, working to ensure all children in the home are safe and supported.
