Post-Adoption Support Program Will Help Rockland Families

The Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York has opened a Rockland County office to help adoptive families and relatives who have guardianship of children. The Adoption and Guardianship Assistance Program for Everyone (AGAPE) is funded by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services.

The program offers supportive services and resources such as parent trainings, support groups for both parents and youth, peer mentoring, navigation for cross-system needs, therapeutic services referrals and counseling free of charge.

The coalition announced its new office at a press conference Aug. 22 with Assemblywoman Ellen C. Jaffee, Chair of the Assembly Committee on Children and Families, state legislators, the County Executive, representatives from OCFS and the Rockland County Department of Social Services (DSS) as well as AFFCNY staff and the families they serve.

Adoptive families, which include relatives raising children and those families who have adopted children from foster care, are the glue that holds our child welfare system together, coalition officials said. They provide day-to-day stability and care to our state’s most vulnerable children, yet all too often, once the adoption is finalized, families are left without support to help them navigate through the unique challenges they face following an adoption or guardianship placement.

Funded by the Regional Permanency Resource Centers (RPRC) initiative of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS), the Adoptive and Foster Care Coalition launched AGAPE in December 2016. AGAPE is one of twelve RPRC programs though out the state and serves families in fifteen counties including Columbia, Delaware, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan and Ulster in the Hudson Valley. The program is also offered in Broome, Chemung, Nassau, Schuler, Suffolk and Tompkins counties.

For more information about AGAPE visit affcny.org or contact AFFCNY at (646) 688-4321 or info@affcny.org.

PHOTO: press conference Aug. 22/ contributed