Four Oaks will be sole provider of foster care support, training in Iowa starting July 1

CEDAR RAPIDS — Fours Oaks, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this summer, will become the sole provider of foster care parents recruitment, retention, training and support for the state starting July 1.

Under the $14 million contract with Iowa Health and Human Services, obtained by The Gazette, Four Oaks will take over the foster care support for the western part of Iowa, in addition to maintaining support for the rest of the state.

The Cedar Rapids-based organization, which started as a small group home in Bertram with 11 boys, now provides a wide range of family and child welfare services and support to over 25,000 Iowa families annually and turns 50 in July.

Four Oaks is funded through a combination of state contracts and grants, federal grants and private donations. Four Oaks is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

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The days of “Boys Acres“

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Four Oaks began in a small group home know as “Boys Acres“ in 1973 in Bertram, outside of Cedar Rapids. The group home housed almost a dozen boys who had no other place to go. The boys played, ate and went to school like other children, making their own family within the home, longtime Four Oaks employee Deb Knake said.

Knake, who plans to retire soon after working at Four Oaks since 1979, recalled an overwhelming sense of belonging among the kids at Boys Acres and how crucial it was to their experience at the home.

“So we would be at the Hardee's and the person waiting on us would say: ‘Oh, these are all your children,’ and one of the whippersnappers would say ‘yes, and there's more back home,’” Knake said. “ And I would just nod my head, ‘Yeah, I have more children back at home,’ but that sense of belonging is so incredibly powerful, whether it was for a day or a moment with the ultimate goal for children to have permanency in their life.”

In 1984, Boys Acres became the sprawling enterprise now known as Four Oaks with 23 locations across the state, the majority of which are in Eastern Iowa.

The home where Four Oaks got its start still stands in Bertram, and has expanded to hold 36 youths that are in Four Oaks residential treatment program for problematic sexual behavior.

After Jim Ernst joined Four Oaks in 1979 as its chief executive officer, the organization began a transition to offering residential treatment for delinquent juveniles with the Juvenile Court Services, and for children with mental and behavioral health needs.

Beginning in the 1980s, Four Oaks began to offer training and support for foster children and families.

‘Families First’

Beginning in the early 1980s, Four Oaks expanded its residential treatment services to include specialized care to foster care children for behavioral health needs, in addition to residential treatment for children referred by the Iowa courts.

With the new contract Four Oaks will recruit, train, support and help retain foster parents all over Iowa. Currently, according to estimates by Four Oaks CEO Mary Beth O’Neill, the organization supports about 3,000 foster families — but the need far exceeds the number of licensed foster families year after year, O’Neill said.

Children are placed in foster care by court order due to abuse, neglect or the death of a parent and no immediate family is able to take care of them.

Four Oaks receives referrals for foster care placements from the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services Child Welfare office. Once referred to Four Oaks, children in foster care are placed with families that match the child's need in their community, if possible. The state places children in foster homes based on the recommendation of Four Oaks.

Four Oaks also recruits new foster families in communities around the state and aids them in obtaining a foster care license from the state.

Four Oaks does not remove children from homes, or place them in foster homes. The Iowa Health and Human Services Department coordinates placements and removals.

According to data from the state data center, Four Oaks will now take over the support for more than 1,400 foster families in western Iowa under the new contract. The organization currently supports more than 2,000 families in 69 of the 99 Iowa counties.

Lutheran Services in Iowa had previously provided services for the other 30 counties.

According to the new contract, Four Oaks will receive more than $11 million annually for its recruitment, training, retention and support for foster parents. Four Oaks also will receive roughly $1.5 million for post-adoption support and a series of performance and need-based compensation, including up to roughly $1.2 million in performance based payments. The contract runs through June 2025 and is eligible for four, one-year renewals before the state will create a new request for proposals.

Four Oaks is looking to create a cohesive foster care program by assuming training and support for the entire state. One main tenant of that plan, O’Neill said, is finding foster families to serve in all Iowa communities.

“When you can keep children in their homes or close to their homes, they're just going to do better overall. And that's why it's so important to have foster families that will commit their time, lives and resources to really giving a child that environment in which they can grow and develop.”

Under the U.S. Family First Act of 2017, the state and Four Oaks are required to aim to keep children within their community when in times of need. However, Four Oaks began similar initiatives decades ago when they first started foster care services, Knake said.

“When I look at the vision that Four Oaks had — that children grow up best in families — the agency took on the perspective that we need to look holistically at the work we're doing — what are the children and families wanting or needing to be successful.”

Looking at children’s need holistically

In early 2010, Four Oaks looked to deepen and expand its reach and support in communities across Iowa and launched a program dubbed “TotalChild,” focusing on not just mental, behavioral or foster care needs for children — but addressing the core issues affecting children and promoting their general well-being in Iowa, O’Neill said.

“What Four Oaks has done over the years is anytime there's a need for a child, or a family in the community — we have identified the need and tried to figure out a way to address it,” O’Neill said. “Any sort of service that might touch the lives and children and families is something that we are going to do.”

Four Oaks receives referrals from Juvenile Court Services, Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, and community organizations for their residential programs and community support programs.

Four Oaks’ defining mission is to “expect success,” O’Neill said, and that means to expect good outcomes for children.

“So sometimes it's one little thing that can throw off a family, whether it's you lose your job or the car doesn’t work,” O’Neill said. “We're going to provide supports to make sure that one event does not impede the success of a child and a family and we're going to do a wraparound service to make sure that they can be successful.”

Comments: 319-368-8877; liam.halawith@thegazette.com.