Teen Parenting Service Network
UCAN’s Teen Parenting Service Network works exclusively with pregnant and parenting youth in DCFS care and their families statewide. Services are available to case management and placement providers as well as to parents and their families. In managing statewide services for pregnant and parenting teens under a single umbrella, UCAN aims to provide seamless service and a full continuum of care. UCAN provides a full scope of clinical services designed to increase our youths’ levels of functioning by assisting them with coping with the effects of trauma. UCAN starts by meeting each youth where she/he is, identifying strengths and building from success. UCAN staff members are trained to identify and treat the serious effects of trauma while enhancing the parenting capacity of youth in their provision of clinical counseling, educational coaching, leadership training, new birth assessments and doula assistance.
Partners in Parenting (PIP)
The Partners in Parenting (PIP) program works with both youth and their children from birth to 21 years of age. The PIP program provides an array of services that support foster care youth in their parenting role, towards reunification and towards the youth’s path to successful independence. The PIP program builds relationships with teen parents to utilize client strengths, support and community to achieve adequate parenting and successful program discharge. Our staff provides complete care and support to the parents and their children in the form of case management services, connections to resources, and family support, including family planning and parenting and community outreach guidance to promote healthy families and productive adults. The program specializes in helping parenting and/or pregnant teens to develop the skills necessary to break the cycle of abuse and to support independence.
Foster Parents
The primary goal of foster care is to restore children safely to their families and foster parents play an essential function in helping the child and parents maintain their family bond during the period of separation. If a child cannot return home, foster parents may provide a permanent home. When this happens, the foster parents eventually assume legal responsibility for the child as the guardian or through adoption.
For more information about our foster care program or how to become a certified foster parent please contact Michael Ann Wiley at michaelann.wiley@ucanchicago.org.
To view UCAN’s Foster Parent Implementation Plan 2020 please click here.
To view UCAN’s Foster Parent Implementation Plan 2021 please click here.
To view UCAN’s Annual Report for Illinois Licensed Adoption Agencies (2021) please click here.
To view UCAN’s Annual Report for Illinois Licensed Adoption Agencies (2022) please click here.
To view the corresponding financial reports 2020 please click here.
To view the corresponding financial reports 2021 please click here.
Foster Grandparents
Senior volunteers who work as foster grandparents offer friendship, education, wisdom, assistance and one-on-one mentorship to their young mentees. Our foster grandparents spend 15-40 hours per week helping children on a one-on-one basis, generally in a school setting, providing support to at-risk children who are pre-school or school-aged. As mentors they also assist with homework, listen to the children, provide emotional support and offer feedback and positive reinforcement. Often we see our foster grandparents becoming true role models for the children they assist.
For more information on becoming a Foster grandparent in Cook County, please contact Tracee Marion Thomas at (773)429-0300, ext. 69335 or Tracee.MarionThomas@ucanchicago.org.