RESOURCES

RESOURCES

Increasing stability & permanency

Education Provided By Family KINnections

Family KINnections provides education in the areas of infant and child health, planned training activities (PAT), home safety, managing child behavior (MCB), and healthy communication.

Family KINnections Services

The kinship navigation and care coordination services will assist caregivers in learning about, finding, and using community resources to meet their own needs and the needs of the children placed in the home.

Increasing stability & permanency

Education Provided By Family KINnections

Family KINnections provides education in the areas of infant and child health, planned training activities (PAT), home safety, managing child behavior (MCB), and healthy communication.

Family KINnections Services

The kinship navigation and care coordination services will assist caregivers in learning about, finding, and using community resources to meet their own needs and the needs of the children placed in the home.

RESOURCES

  • Home-based – we come to you at a time convenient for your family.
  • Working with OKDHS and helping families understand the foster care system and court proceedings.
  • Educating and linking families to community resources specific to foster families, including financial assistance.
  • Supporting families in the approval process by helping to obtain documentation needed for the home study and any other necessary requirements.
  • Providing parenting education specific to caring for children in kinship care.
  • Helping families find items needed for the additional children in their home, including beds, clothing, diapers, formula, and more!
  • Providing recreational resources and information about community events.
  • Completing developmental assessments and making referrals to behavioral health and medical providers, as needed.
  • Connecting families to crisis helplines for added support.

EDUCATION

Infant & Child Health training will help you learn what to do when a child is sick or injured. Caregivers will learn how to decide when a child should go to an emergency room, just call the doctor, or when it is okay to treat a sick child at home. You will also learn some basic skills such as taking a child’s temperature and giving the correct dose of medication.

Planned Activities Training (PAT) will teach new ways to plan fun and daily activities with children to help reduce stress caused by their behavior. A goal of the training is to help caregivers learn new ways to talk, interact, and help with bonding. Caregivers will learn the ten steps of PAT to help set up activities to get the best behavior and help children learn new things each day.

Home Safety training will help make your home safe and healthy for children. Caregivers will learn to identify possible hazards in the home. Proper use of safety devices will be demonstrated to make your home a safer place for children.

Managing Child Behavior(MCB) will help you learn new ways to deal with difficult behaviors. Training will help you learn and practice ways to help children behave in a positive manner, and involve them in your daily activities.

The Healthy Communication curriculum helps you identify positive and problematic aspects of communication with children and family members to make healthy changes. This training is available individually or as a family including adolescents.

F A Q

Most frequent questions and answers

Family KINnections is a voluntary program designed to provide kinship resource parents support in understanding the DHS process, provide parenting support and education to resource parents and find resources needed while caring for the child(ren) to assist with maintaining the kinship placement.

Resource homes identified as kinship can ask their DHS worker to submit a Family KINnections referral form. 

There are different challenges at different times while being a foster parent. Early on there are a lot of classes and meetings in order to get approved which can make time management difficult.  Understanding the DHS/Court process can be a continuous challenge for individuals not familiar with the process. It is the goal of most cases to bridge with bio parents effectively for reunification of the family. This can sometimes be very difficult for kinship placement. However, with Family KINnections you have the support to help you understand these processes and overcome these challenges.

Ask for help! Asking for help early helps create a solid support system to assist you during this challenging time. You are not alone. Family KINnections was specifically designed to support families just like yours in this situation.

All cases are different and are dependent on the biological parent’s participation in the court ordered plan. Family KINnections can attend court to assist in understanding the progress of the case.

Our program does not offer therapy; however, we assist with finding a therapist in your area. Family KINnections can internally refer to NorthCare for therapy if appropriate.

The foster care or permanency planning worker can make a referral to our program.

There are 2 DHS worker assign to your case, and each worker has their supervisor. The DHS Resource worker will take care of your home approval and requirements, while the DHS Permanency worker will take care of the children well-being and she will supervise biological parent’s progress.

To contact us, call 405-858-2813

To contact us, call
405-858-2813

SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR PARTNERS

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