Programs and Services
Provides home-based intervention to families formed through adoption or subsidized guardianship. Counseling, crisis intervention and assistance help address adjustment, grief/loss resolution, attachment, educational and emotional issues. This DCFS-supported program also provides therapeutic respite services, psycho-educational and support groups, workshops, and help securing resources.
Behavioral Health builds on individual strengths and capacity for change while addressing special needs, behavioral and situational problems, or mental illness. Counseling services are offered for children, families and adults. Services are provided in the office, client homes, schools and other human service agencies.
Bridges to Pathways is a program to reconnect youth ages 14–17 to high school. The Bridges program provides intensive case management services, individualized action plans, and supportive services to increase attendance and assist each youth in completing high school.
Community Schools operate during non-school hours and expand positive choices and opportunities for youth while achieving academic success. Tutoring, homework help, recreation, life skills, cultural opportunities, and case management are included.
Domestic Violence Clinical Services are for survivors of partner abuse and their children, and for teens and children who have witnessed domestic violence. Staff provide safety planning, individual and group counseling, case management, information and referrals.
Domestic Violence Housing Navigation supports individuals impacted by domestic violence and/or human trafficking that are experiencing homelessness. Housing Navigators support survivors throughout the process to ensure that they are successfully connected to a permanent housing opportunity.
Extended Family Support serves relative caregivers facing issues that threaten the safety, stability and placement of the child within the home. The DCFS-funded program helps caregivers obtain guardianship, apply for public aid grants, advocate with schools, and access community resources and referrals.
Families in Transition (FIT) program provides housing, goal setting, mentoring and referrals to help homeless families whose children attend Chicago Public Schools. Services help families to become permanently housed and achieve economic stability.
Family Works is a comprehensive case management program that supports families as they strive for self-sufficiency. Family Works provides employment and education services, opportunities for youth, lease compliance, clinical and wellness services, and senior support services to families in Altgeld Gardens.
A career and personal financial service center at Kennedy-King College. We help clients change their financial behavior and encourage them to make a long-term commitment to increasing income, decreasing expenses and acquiring assets. Our core services are career improvement and employment placement, financial literacy, and public benefits access. We also offer technology training on site.
IPS provides clinically intensive therapeutic interventions to emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children in DCFS custody.
Provides legal assistance and community education to low-income individuals in the areas of domestic violence, family and elder law, housing, and consumer issues.
MOMS Plus is for pregnant and/or young mothers and fathers ages 13–21 who are DCFS wards, and also for parents of developmentally delayed children. Home-based services and groups help improve the mother’s parenting skills, promote healthy child development, create support networks among young mothers, address trauma that may impact emotional and/or behavioral functioning, and link caregivers to resources.
Project STRIVE is a collaboration between Metropolitan Family Services, DCFS and Chicago Public Schools that helps stabilize students who are wards of the state. The program reduces truancy, suspensions and expulsions; improves academic performance; addresses emotional and behavior problems; and increases parental and caseworker involvement.
Safe from the Start offers a variety of family support and mental health services to families with children age 0-5 years old who have been affected by abuse or neglect, or exposed to community, domestic and/ or media violence. Safe from the Start provides assessments, referrals, linkages, individual and family counseling, and support and education groups for parents and children.
Senior Homeowners Program serves low to moderate income homeowners age 60 or older who have difficulty maintaining their homes. The program provides referrals to reputable home repair contractors, and links seniors to city departments and programs to help maintain their property. Included are workshops on topics such as reducing consumer fraud.
STEP UP In Healthcare is a career laddering program that provides educational training and wraparound services for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients and low-income eligible individuals in high-demand healthcare fields. This program is funded by the Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families in partnership with Chicago State University.
Upward Bound provides educational and supportive services to eligible first-generation, college-bound students to help them successfully complete high school and enter college. This partnership involves the U.S. Department of Education, Metropolitan Family Services Calumet, Corliss High School and Harlan High School.
A Youth Opportunity Grant establishing broad partnerships and Youth Opportunity Community Centers. Individuals ages 16-21 can access services including employment, education, supportive services and specialized training projects such as culinary arts. It also helps to keep youth in school, provides valuable experiences with work and community service projects, and increases college enrollment.
YouthBuild Chicago is an innovative alternative education program, for individuals ages 18 – 24, providing unemployed highschool dropouts the education and occupational skills that prepare them for jobs with good wages. Youth alternate between the classroom and the work site, learning construction skills while building affordable housing in their communities. Certifications include First Aid/CPR, NCCER Core, OSHA 10, and NCCER Carpentry.