IRIS FAMILY SUPPORT CENTER INC

Programs

1. Community partners for child safety: the community partners for child safety is a statewide initiative, funded by the department of child services, designed to help families before they cross the line into abuse or neglect. Through the community partners programs, iris works with other local social service agencies to offer caregivers help with situations that are interfering with their ability to manage their families. The goal of these programs is to provide families with in-home, one-on-one services that strengthen the family, and prevent child abuse or neglect. Community partners services are offered by expert providers in every county it serves. Services include support, education, and advocacy in areas such as parenting and discipline, housing, employment, medical follow up, budgeting, and school issues. In addition, iris also contracts with and supervises various prevention programs in each county through local prevention dollars to address specific needs in each community. The network serves families living in adams, allen, dekalb, huntington, lagrange, noble, steuben, wells, and whitley counties. Community partners offers help to families living in cass, elkhart, fulton,…

   $4,217,565 spent$4,781,369 earned by the program
   36% of program spending

2. Family preservation services: includes services provided by paraprofessional, bachelor's level and master's level staff. The various services under this program include: family preservation services home-based casework & homemaker services these are services for parents to deter any further incidents of child abuse and neglect. The referrals are made by the indiana department of child services (dcs). Paraprofessional (homemaker) and bachelor-level staff (home-based casework) provide in-home, high quality, family centered casework services to parents to enhance family resilience, support nurturing relationships, and create a safe physical environment for the family. Service includes crisis response that comprise assessment and goal planning to meet the complex needs of families. Ongoing services are provided to ensure safety in the home. Frequency of visits is determined by the needs of the family and dcs. Visitation facilitation this is a service for children that have been removed from the family due to an incident of child abuse or neglect. The referrals are made by dcs. This service occurs at iris' offices, a client's home, or in a public venue. The goal of a visit is to keep…

   $3,305,530 spent$5,296,626 earned by the program
   28% of program spending

3. Healthy families: the healthy families program helps prevent abuse and neglect by working one-on-one with overwhelmed families that are struggling to balance raising children with life's demands. Targeted to help parents of newborn children, healthy families enroll parents during pregnancy or immediately after the birth of their child or within 3 months of child's birth. Most parents are screened in the hospital, if the family meets the program criteria, they are enrolled in the program. One-on-one, in-home services begin weekly and can last one to three years. The healthy families program works with parents to teach child development and age-appropriate expectations of children, to assist parents in building a strong network of support from family, neighbors, and churches; to help parents develop budgeting, time-management, and stress-management skills to better balance parenting and home-management, and to link families to community resources for health care, financial aid, food, housing, school-readiness, child care, job training, substance-abuse treatment, and other mental health assistance.

   $3,262,263 spent$2,825,736 earned by the program
   28% of program spending

4. Family connections: family connections offers programs to help people address conflict and changing family situations due to divorce, separation, or paternity issues. Programs include co-parenting workshops/classes, kids & divorce workshops, parenting coordination, supervised parenting time, and conflict groups. Some of these programs require a judge's order and/or stipulation; others are completely voluntary. Within family connections, iris offers therapeutic counseling services along with therapeutic visitation facilitation for visiting parents and their children. The family connections program also includes domestic violence services for victims and children, as well as alternative to anger program, certified by the indiana coalition of domestic violence. Family connections has expanded services to include: children's therapeutic art and music groups, substance abuse services, truancy services and outpatient therapy. Family connections staff also partner with the dr. Bill lewis center for children to provide mental health support and therapy to children and families that have been exposed to sexual abuse, violent crimes, and domestic violence. Community outreach: the community…

   $823,679 spent$290,545 earned by the program
   7% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $11,609,037.