AFS' Short-Term Emergency Shelter Program is designed to provide stability and continuity of care for children entering the foster care system, an especially frightening and unstable time. In some counties, children awaiting a judicial decision reside in large county-run institutions. In others, children entering the foster care system may move from one placement setting to another as the status of their case moves through the courts. A child might spend six months in a shelter home while the court and the local Department of Social Services decide on whether the child should return home. If the court decides on long-term care, the child might be uprooted and moved into a a long-term foster home. This process is destabilizing for the child and the foster family, reducing the child's ability to bond and trust, and making family visits or reunification more difficult. AFS' Short-Term Emergency Shelter Program allows children to stay in a single foster home even as the situation with their family and the courts changes. AFS supports family reunification and understands that shelter can provide safety, predictability and nurturance during a very difficult family crisis. Alternatively, if the court decides the child should stay in foster care, the child can stay with the shelter family he or she already knows. AFS Foster Parents are committed to working with the child and family as they move through the social service system. A child who begins in shelter and then transfers to long-term foster care will not experience traumatic move after traumatic move. The Foster Parents The AFS Short-term emergency foster parents are trained to care for and nurture the child through the trauma of separation from family within the highly anxious context of a developing family and legal situation. This is accomplished through intensive case management, supervised family visits, and 24-hour on-call support from AFS staff. AFS Short-term emergency foster parents receive an enhanced reimbursement stipend during the first several weeks of placement. New foster parents awaiting their first foster placement often find that they wait shorter periods for a short-term emergency placement than they would waiting for a longer term placement and gain experience from working with a wider group of youngsters. The Caseworker Just as the AFS Foster Family nurtures the foster child, the Caseworker is the Foster Parents primary contact person in the agency. Caseworkers help Foster Parents meet the special needs of children thrown into the shelter system. Caseworkers have extensive knowledge of the specialized services available in the community. Caseworkers provide liaison among the foster family, biological family, placing agency, and other involved professionals. Caseworkers are available to Foster Parents on a round-the-clock basis to help them deal with any problems that might arise.

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