Alternative Family Services Wins the Council on Accreditation’s 2020 Innovative Practices Award
The award celebrates AFS’s Enhanced Visitation Model as an example of COVID-19 innovation in the human services field.
AFS Enhanced Visitation Model 2020
December 9, 2020 – Santa Rosa, CA – Alternative Family Services (AFS) was recently named the winner of the 2020 Innovative Practices Award by The Council on Accreditation (COA). The award highlights the work that AFS is doing to provide therapeutic visitation support and services to foster youth and their families during the COVID-19 pandemic.
AFS’s Enhanced Visitation Model, funded with the assistance of the Walter S. Johnson Foundation, incorporates risk assessment and visit planning tools to assist staff in developing transparent and equitable visitation plans for all families. They have coupled this with replicable visitation activities or venues that can safely provide a continuum of healthy visit experiences regardless of risk level. To learn more about the award-winning visitation model, please check out this video or click here.
According to COA, the Innovative Practices Award identifies, documents, and celebrates examples of successful approaches to management and service delivery practices adopted by our accredited organizations. The purpose of the Innovative Practices Award is to amplify the effect of one great idea by elevating it to the national stage and offering it as a resource for direct service providers, leadership, researchers, and advocates across the full spectrum of human services.
“It is a tremendous honor to receive this award, and it is truly a testament to all of the hard work that the visitation and social work teams at AFS and The Gathering Place have put in place this year. 2020 has been an especially difficult year for the 1,500 foster youth and families that we proudly serve across Northern California, and this award is validation of the effort that AFS is making to provide the best possible care and support,” says Jim Gold, LCSW, Chief Program Officer of AFS.
Learn more about Alternative Family Services at afs4kids.org.
About AFS
Alternative Family Services (AFS) provides thoughtful, informed foster care, adoption and mental health services throughout California’s San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Sacramento region. Since 1978, the mission of AFS has been – and continues to be – to support vulnerable children and families in need of stability, safety and well-being in communities through foster care, adoption and mental health services.
About COA
Founded in 1977, the Council on Accreditation (COA) is an independent, nonprofit, international, accreditor of community-based behavioral health and social service organizations. Designed to meet the needs of the varied human services field, COA accredits over 47 different service areas and over 125 types of programs. We have separate Accreditation Programs for private organizations, public agencies, Canadian organizations, military programs, and child and youth development programs (including out-of-school time and early childhood education).
Currently, COA accredits or is in the process of accrediting over 1,600 organizations or programs that serve more than 7 million individuals and families each year. Learn more at coanet.org.
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For more information, please contact Jennifer Harper, AFS Director of Development & Marketing at 510-759-1271 or jharper@afs4kids.org.
