Since 2003, AFE has partnered with the Department of Family and Children Services to provide family preservation and reunification services. The goal of our DFCS program is to prevent child abuse/neglect and to build healthy families. DFCS Services consist of:

• Drug Screening - AFE provides urine, oral, and hair follicle testing. AFE also provides alcohol testing.  Drug testing can be performed on-site in our office or within the community.
• Homestead Services - The goal of Homestead Services is to stabilize and help families in need of intensive therapeutic intervention to insure a safe and healthy environment for the family. Homestead Services provide short-term, intensive, crisis-oriented, in-home counseling program in order to stabilize the family and insure a safe and healthy environment for the children. This program attempts to meet the immediate /crisis-oriented needs of families while also beginning to address the root causes of family dysfunction with therapeutic intervention strategies. The Homestead program provides comprehensive assessment, family support, counseling, and crisis intervention to manage the risk factors contributing to child abuse and neglect. Homestead Services can be used for children at imminent risk of foster placement and reunification when a child is being returned to his/her family.
• Parenting/Parent Aide - The goal of the Parent Aide Program is to stabilize and help families in need of intervention by providing in-home and group parenting education. The Parent Aide Program engages paraprofessional staff to provide parenting education, training and support to families through group classes and in-home visitation. Parent Aides work as a team member with casework staff, with the goal of ensuring the safety and protection of children by improving parenting competency. Objectives are to strengthen the parent-child bond, reduce social isolation, build trust, help parents identify their children's needs and ways to respond to those needs, and appropriate discipline. Other responsibilities may include emergency respite care, food and nutrition education (i.e. meal planning, advice on grocery shopping, meal preparation, safe food handling and sanitation), information on homemaking and budgeting topics, and assistance in accessing community resources.
• Supervised Visitation Services - AFE provides supervised visitations between birth parents and their child(ren) while in foster care.  These visits are to ensure that parents continue their bond and to work towards their goal of reunification. AFE staff closely supervises the visit to ensure that children are being nurtured and that no signs of abuse/neglect are evident.
• Early Intervention Services - The goal of Early Intervention/Preventive Services is to provide voluntary family support services and information about community services to prevent problematic family issues from escalating to the point of required CPS intervention. Services include parenting, anger management, counseling, Early Intervention services are available for CPS referrals that are substantiated and closed with dispositions of low risk, referrals that are unsubstantiated and closed, referrals that are screened-out and open cases reassessed as low risk and subsequently closed.
• Comprehensive Child and Family Assessments - AFE is a certified Comprehensive Child and Family Assessment (CCFA) provider for the Department of Human Resources.  Our agency contracts with the State of Georgia to assure that every child initially entering the foster care system is assessed and receives appropriate services to ensure successful outcomes. A CCFA is a formal assessment initiated soon after a child enters the care of the Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS).  The assessment is completed within 30 days of the referral provide background information on the family and is geared towards developing a family plan with goals and recommendations for reunifying that child with their family.
• Wrap Around Services - Wrap-Around Services may be used in combination or as separate service components. The purpose of Wrap Around Services is to demonstrate improved outcomes in the safety, permanency and well-being of children and families. Wrap Around services are used to support children placed in the Department of Family and Children Services foster homes, children reunited with their birth families with court ordered services, and children placed with relative caregivers. These services include parenting, counseling, visitation between families, teaching life management skills, and other services.
• Other Assessments:

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  • Home Evaluations
  • Domestic Violence Assessments
  • Substance Abuse Assessments