Mission:
Our mission is to build a strong, stable, foundation of support for each youth we serve, and develop opportunities that enable them to discover and sustain a positive life.
Vision:
All youth served by OCH are on a path to achieve happiness, health, self-sufficiency, and success.
Our Children’s Homestead (OCH) believes that every youth, despite their troubled past, deserves the opportunity and is capable of developing healthy family relationships and participating in typical life experiences.
In 1995, the founders of Our Children’s Homestead (OCH), set out to build a foster care agency that would provide a family and home environment to Wards of the State of Illinois who were severely troubled and had specialized health care needs. At that time, and still today, many of these youth live in clinical settings or very restrictive environment’s until they are removed from care. OCH’s staff, therapists and foster parents provide intensive therapeutic and supportive services so that these children can thrive in their home, school and local community. We believe that every child deserves the opportunity to develop healthy family relationships, participate in local school and community activities, play on community sports teams, work a part-time job, and have friends in the neighborhood. Our clinical services support children and youth to succeed outside of a hospital or residential treatment program environment.
The children we serve often have challenges unlike most: a combination of medical, developmental, mental and behavioral issues that require intensive services and a steadfast commitment to helping and healing. Our therapeutic, psychiatric and community based programs have been successful. We bring stability to children who were thought to be lost in the system by employing highly skilled and experienced counselors, psychologists and social workers. We also have professional, therapeutic foster parents who provide crisis shelter to homeless youth.
The team’s primary goal is to assist our children in achieving safe, permanent homes. This goal may be achieved by reuniting them with their biological parents or other relatives or it may be providing private or state guardianship, helping them to achieve independence.
On the other side of permanency we work with families who are looking to adopt children. We have a domestic adoption program where we have been very successful in completing families with this process.
Our Children’s Homestead is licensed by the State of Illinois and has national accreditation through the Council on Accreditation of Children and Family Services (COA).
In 1995, the founders of Our Children’s Homestead (OCH), set out to build a foster care agency that would provide a family and home environment to Wards of the State of Illinois who were severely troubled and had specialized health care needs. At that time, and still today, many of these youth live in clinical settings or very restrictive environment’s until they are removed from care. OCH’s staff, therapists and foster parents provide intensive therapeutic and supportive services so that these children can thrive in their home, school and local community. We believe that every child deserves the opportunity to develop healthy family relationships, participate in local school and community activities, play on community sports teams, work a part-time job, and have friends in the neighborhood. Our clinical services support children and youth to succeed outside of a hospital or residential treatment program environment.
The children we serve often have challenges unlike most: a combination of medical, developmental, mental and behavioral issues that require intensive services and a steadfast commitment to helping and healing. Our therapeutic, psychiatric and community based programs have been successful. We bring stability to children who were thought to be lost in the system by employing highly skilled and experienced counselors, psychologists and social workers. We also have professional, therapeutic foster parents who provide crisis shelter to homeless youth.
The team’s primary goal is to assist our children in achieving safe, permanent homes. This goal may be achieved by reuniting them with their biological parents or other relatives or it may be providing private or state guardianship, helping them to achieve independence.
On the other side of permanency we work with families who are looking to adopt children. We have a domestic adoption program where we have been very successful in completing families with this process.
Our Children’s Homestead is licensed by the State of Illinois and has national accreditation through the Council on Accreditation of Children and Family Services (COA).