Four Oaks receives grant to help children and families

Four Oaks Family and Children's Services has received a federal grant to increase the support from extended families to children entering or re-entering the foster care system.

The $600,000 three-year grant from the Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration for Children and Families will fund Families for Iowa's Children, an intensive effort to locate biological family members of children entering the foster system to reestablish relationships, supporting lifelong connections that children in foster care need.

This is the only Family Connections federal grant awarded in Iowa and was developed with the support and endorsement of the Iowa Department of Human Services.

Four Oaks also holds the DHS contract for Recruitment and Retention of Resource Families, operated by a statewide partnership called Iowa KidsNet which includes. The two projects will work together in two parts of the state: the twelve counties around Ames in central Iowa, and the 14 counties around Cedar Rapids. It is expected that 200 children will be served through the Families for Iowa's Children program over the three-year period.