Family Preservation Services
STRENGTHENING
FAMILIES &
REVITALIZING
COMMUNITIES
EPACT, Inc. works to improve the social, psychological, educational and economic conditions of families and communities through the provision of evidence-based services and community collaboration.
EPACT, Inc. believes strengthening individuals and families through a collective provision of opportunities that solidify the community connection is the best way to operate in their best interests and build strong, cohesive neighborhoods.
EPACT, Inc. collaborates with other social services agencies, families, schools and the courts to educate and empower individuals to become self-reliant contributors to their communities.
Helping to sustain the bond between individuals, families and the community operates in the best interests of our children and creates a foundation of collective community empowerment.
EPACT, Inc. facilitates evidence-based in-home services for families in crisis or at risk of separation by state intervention due to abuse, neglect and/or a lack of resources. Our in-home services preserve families at-risk of children being removed from their homes.
EPACT’s professional staff evaluate the needs of each individual family and its members through comprehensive assessment tools and develop individualized service plans that achieve more positive outcomes.
​
Families that learn together realize that everyone in the unit is responsible for the well-being of the family as a whole. Families learn the importance of partnership and teamwork that ultimately result in personal, familial and community stability and growth.
IN-HOME SERVICES
EPACT Inc.'s Licensed Professional Counselors provide client-centered services that analyze and treat the core components of the destabilization of the individuals and families we serve.
​
EPACT’s services provide Mental Health Assessments that evaluate Trauma, Domestic Violence, Parental Fitness, Behavioral and Substance Abuse challenges.
​
Our Counseling services effectively address the biopsychosocial factors that challenge the well-being of the individuals and families we serve.
MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
When children are removed from their homes, the immediate circumstances for the family can be devastating. Children are placed with foster parents and institutions unknown and unfamiliar to them; and siblings are oftentimes placed in separate households.
Family visitations are one of the essential components that foster the reunification of families. Family-time visits are fundamental to parents and children maintaining a bond throughout the difficult separation process.
​
Currently, family-time visits are inflexible due to children’s school obligations, inconvenient visitation hours, parents’ work schedules and placement of children in counties other than that of their parents or siblings.
EPACT expedites safe family reunifications by providing more traditional “family – time opportunities” that foster sibling relationships and allow families to visit in their own homes.
FAMILY VISITATION
EPACT's parenting education programs are family-centered and designed to promote positive and nurturing parenting skills that replace neglectful and abusive child-rearing practices.
​
EPACT’s parenting education facilitators help prevent child abuse and neglect by helping parents enhance their:
​
-
PARENTAL RESILIENCE - to effectively problem solve and build their capacity to deal with everyday life-stressors
​
-
SOCIAL CONNECTIONS - to expand their social networks and build a larger base of parenting support
​
-
CONCRETE SUPPORTS - that identify basic resources in the community and how to access them
​
-
KNOWLEDGE OF NURTURING PARENTING - designed to help parents develop age-appropriate expectations for their children; and
​
-
SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL COMPETENCE OF CHILDREN that assists parents in helping children understand their feelings and develop skills for relating to themselves and others
PARENTING EDUCATION
EPACT’s Financial Education Services foster financial stability for the clients we serve and improve their financial health and well-being.
EPACT utilizes the FDIC’s Money Smart Comprehensive Financial Education Curriculum to help low-and moderate-income individuals outside the financial mainstream enhance their financial skills and create positive banking relations.
Money Smart has proven to positively influence how consumers manage their finances, and these changes are sustainable for years after the training.
FINANCIAL
EDUCATION SERVICES
EPACT’s Job-readiness Skills teach those all-important “soft skills” that give clients significant insight into their strong points and limitations and help them perform successfully when it comes to acquiring and maintaining employment.
​
VARIOUS SOFT SKILLS ADDRESSED INCLUDE:
​
-
MOTIVATION
-
SELF-CONFIDENCE
-
INTERVIEWING
-
PRESENTATION SKILLS
-
LISTENING
-
COMMUNICATION
-
TIME MANAGEMENT
-
STRESS MANAGEMENT
-
WORK ETHIC
-
RESPONSIBILITY
-
NETWORKING
JOB READINESS SKILLS
Oftentimes, foster children are placed in cities and counties far from their family and communities.
​
EPACT’s transportation services ensure children are safely transported to and from family visits, court and panel hearings, doctor appointments and social activities.
Transportation services unite parents and children and help them maintain their connection while parents work towards reunification.
It is evidenced that children who have frequent visits with their parents have a smoother transition back into the family home.
TRANSPORTATION
SERVICES
When children enter into the foster care system, the main goal is to reunite them with their biological parents. Unfortunately, some birth families are not always able to provide the best care for their children.
That’s where committed foster and adoptive parents come in. The first step toward becoming a foster/adoptive parent is the desire to make life better for a child in need. The next step in the foster/adoptive parent process is training.
EPACT provides IMPACT Training to help prospective foster/adoptive families make a knowledgeable decision about their desire to resource parent and clarify the foster/adoptive parent’s role in the social service continuum.
Through IMPACT, EPACT prepares resource families for the joys and challenges of fostering and adopting by addressing the entire service continuum from initial inquiry through completion of the family evaluation that recommends approval of the home placement of a foster care child.
FOSTER CARE DEVELOPMENT
Classroom and online learning are the start of sufficiently training undergraduate and graduate students for work in their selected fields of study.
Students are also required to obtain skills, work experience and opportunities to network and apply their academics to their chosen vocations through internships.
Participating in a valuable training period not only profits students but the agency hosting the internship by skillfully preparing students through mentored relationships.
EPACT hosts internships for undergraduate and graduate scholars studying in the fields of Social and Behavioral Science that include:
​
-
HUMAN SERVICES
-
SOCIAL WORK
-
PSYCHOLOGY
-
SOCIOLOGY
-
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
-
COUNSELING