New Alternatives for Children (NAC): Adoption and Kinship Support – Permanency Resource Center

Address: 825 7th Avenue, 5th Floor New York, NY 10019
Contact: Samantha Callaghan, LMSW
Phone: (646) 367-8417 (office) / (646) 531-0608 (cell)
Email: Scallaghan@nackidscan.org or AKS@nackidscan.org
Website: https://nackidscan.org/programs/the-family-permanency-center/
Brochure: Adoption and Kinship Support brochure 2024

Serves: Non-parent caregivers w/ no formal legal designation, legal custody, legal guardianship, & post-adoptive families in NYC – Bronx, Kings (Brooklyn), Manhattan, Richmond (Staten Island) & Queens counties.

As of 8/7/2024 – NO WAITLIST – LOW # OF KINSHIP FAMILIES

Services: Voluntary basis & services extend to whole household – goals are to prevent post-adoptive family dissolutions/disruptions, provide services to ensure child can be cared for in the home, strength post-adoptive/post-guardianship families (Post Permanency Support Program & Family Permanency Program)

• Benefits
  • Post-adoption/post-guardianship services offer valuable guidance and essential support to families.
  • Connect/share experiences with fellow parents through support groups, social activities, family events, and community gatherings.
  • Address common issues in adoptive/kinship families by promoting healthy family relationships.
  • Services aid parents in understanding their children's behavior, enhancing their coping capabilities, and identifying appropriate strategies to meet their children's needs.
  • Assist in maintaining connections with siblings and accessing support from their past.
• What does the assigned social worker do?
  • Case management and in-home support
  • Provides comprehensive psychosocial, family-centered needs assessment, & trauma assessment screening
  • Information and advocacy
  • Crisis intervention: social workers engage with families to provide immediate support, help in deescalating stressful situations, and develop action/safety plan to address a range of ongoing challenging issues
  • Individual and Family Counseling and psychoeducation on kinship/adoption related issues
  • Submits referrals to current NAC programs and/or community providers based on family need
  • Offers on-site and off-site parent workshops, trainings and monthly support groups
  • Lifebook Work- an adoption storybook is a scrapbook/keepsake that illustrates a child’s journey to his or her adoptive home - used as a source of information & to open up the discussion of adoption with a child.

Monthly off-site art therapy self-care group partnered with Art Therapy Outreach Center

A New York State Office of Children and Family Services Program