HANDS ACROSS THE WATER TO BEGIN OFFERING FAMILY PRESERVATION SERVICES: MiFamily Together program to serve Wayne County families

Hands Across The Water has been awarded a contract to provide family preservation services in Wayne County by the State of Michigan, delivering an opportunity to put belief into action and grow the 27-year-old organization's footprint in metro Detroit.

Founded in 1999 as a four-employee international adoption agency, HATW has expanded its programs over time to include foster care case management and foster parent licensing, waiting child adoption, trauma-informed behavioral health services for children and adults, and kinship care service provided by nearly 50 staff members. The new contract will expand HATW's staff by an additional 26 people, and its physical presence by an additional office space in Livonia to house them.

"Investing on a federal and state level in services that prevent child abuse and neglect, intervening and supporting families earlier is critical to preventing the trauma of child maltreatment and the further trauma of separation in foster care. While some level of out-of-home care for youth will always be needed to ensure safety, we should be looking at foster care as the ‘last resort.’ HATW has been working toward the goal of providing these services for a long time,” says Katie Page Sander, HATW Executive Director. "We could not be more excited to begin providing MiFamily Together family preservation services in Wayne County."

The contract award comes at a time of transition for the State of Michigan, which is moving from a system of several different family preservation program models to a single program: MiFamily Together which has been piloted in several counties for the past two years. MiFamily Together’s unique 2Gen approach serves all members of the family, rather than focusing only on parents. HATW staff will work with clients to develop personalized treatment plans, focusing on the strengths and needs of both parents and children to create achievable goals. Regardless of the level of need, all clients will receive the same level of attention and care, with service delivered in-home and coordinated only by one agency and ensuring that clients have one main contact rather than splintering coordination of care across several providers. The service model includes a system of family advocates, family interventionists to service clients who could benefit from brief strategic family therapy, and parent partners—staff with lived experience working successfully with CPS and who will offer mentoring and support to families.

Starting Oct. 1 MiFamily Together will provide broader access to services, with a range of entry points: through referral from CPS, MDHHS or private agency foster care, Post-Adoption Resource Centers (PARC), relatives with placement of youth in care, Native American tribes, and domestic violence shelters. HATW is one of two providers in Wayne County.