Residential Care
Students live and function as a family in one of our four cottages staffed by live-in house parents. The students, ages 9-18 years, attend public and parochial schools. We also encourage them to participate in community activities. We currently can accommodate 48 students on campus in cottages in our Residential Program. The oldest boys reside in two cottages on our Acopian West Campus. On our upper main campus is one cottage for girls and one cottage for our younger boys. 

Emergency Shelter Care
Our 24-bed Acopian Emergency Placement Center provides emergency shelter, short-term housing, crisis intervention and services for youth in crisis, from ages 9 to 18 years. Our trained staff gives 24-hour-a-day supervision and care.

Community Foster and Group Homes
Many of our young residents progress to the point where they no longer require the structure of our campus program. If these residents do not have a family, or if they need help in transition into the community, we will move them into one of our group or foster homes. Presently we can accommodate 76 children in our off-campus satellite homes. Acopian Honor House, a collaboration with Lafayette College, is an exciting and very special home for some of our special students.

The Howard Fund (formerly called our Scholarship Bed Program), provides immediate placement for any youngster who is in need of our programs and services, and who is not currently in the county funding system. This Fund allows us to accept any child, who is referred by a pastor, teacher, or parent, who is in immediate trouble and needs our care and be able to cover the costs.

Special news: "If you have the home, we have the child". Join our family as Foster parents! We welcome new inquiries and are looking for a few new people. For information, please contact Mr. Lee Baker, Director of Community Services, 610-258-2831, extension 304.

Aftercare Program
For our high school graduates who are not quite ready to be on their own, or for those who need to return to our Home for a brief period of time, at any point in their lives, we offer apartment-style living on campus. Zigmund Hall for Aftercare, a two-story, 10 apartment building completed in 2004, is the home for young people in our Aftercare Program. Those in the program must have a job or be enrolled in a higher education facility to qualify. All expenses are covered including meals and transportation. If working, a portion of a graduate’s salary is paid into the program, and when they leave, it is returned to them providing a nice start to go out on their own. This important program can fill the void between high school graduation and independence for those young people who may need the support system of the Home.

Education Is A Priority
We have an unparalleled commitment to education. Although we provide educational and interim instruction, we are not a school. All our students must be able to attend and function in public schools or available special education programs. When young people arrive at the Home, our staff assesses their educational level and sees that they are placed in the correct grade and school in our community. Until students are placed, we provide interim schooling. We have an on-campus classroom for new students and a classroom at our Acopian Center. Our new Education Center housing our Tutoring Department and classroom, Brunner Activity Room and David Library opened in the fall of 1999.

Additional educational services offered include evening tutoring for students who need extra help in school, GED tutoring and a Summer Enrichment Program. Also, during our students’ junior and senior years of high school, caseworkers counsel and help them to plan for their futures- college, trade school or a job. Although they learn many independent living skills in their day-to-day lives at the Home, we also provide a formal program to prepare our students in such subjects as job hunting, money management and living on their own. For those attending college, the Home provides both financial and moral support throughout their college days. The Ruth Baumann College Scholarship Fund exists to provide for our college students who are Children's Home alumni. In addition to academic classes, many of our students receive vocational training at area vocational schools.

Family Enrichment Center
We work collaboratively with the Family Enrichment Center which provides individual therapy to clients in our shelter, campus and community based programs. Services continue to include psychiatric and psychological evaluations, testing to individuals and groups, and art therapy to all residents.

Alternative Education
As our educational commitment to our students and all children is so strong, we are fortunate to be able to have children from outside the Home come to us on a daily basis, in collaboration with our Interim Instruction Program and the school districts. Our educational staff works with these children to help them conquer their difficulties so they can return to their school and continue with their education. We also offer a Day Treatment program that addresses similar goals.

A Family Comprised of Staff, Board, Auxiliary and Volunteers
More than 120 staff members, including caseworkers, teachers, medical staff, spiritual life counselors, house parents, recreation, maintenance, transportation, administrative and support personnel, work together as a cohesive team to provide a nurturing home. Our Boards of Directors, both The Children’s Home of Easton, Inc. and CHE Services, Inc., manage and contribute to the overall success and future of our Home and our children. The Children’s Home’s Advisory Board serves in an advisory capacity and assists on various projects. And our volunteers, the Auxiliary of The Children’s Home of Easton and our Sponsor Program members contribute to the year-round activities of our children and the Home.

Volunteers Make a Difference to the students at The Children’s Home                                                                                                                                 

Community members volunteer at The Children’s Home in a variety of capacities.  Some people volunteer by working directly with the students while others work through the agency to support the students.  Some volunteers devote their efforts to specific occasions and others volunteer all year long.  Other volunteers work one-on-one with a specific student in our program

Sponsorship is a specific, long-term commitment where a student is mentored by a single adult or by an adult couple.  After the initial paperwork processing of “the Sponsor”, which includes mandatory state and federal clearances, the student and adult are free to form a bond not only on campus, but also in the community.  Sponsors provide extra support to the student’s life, aside from the staff members at The Home, by showing the student that community members, who at first are strangers to them, care about them.  Since some students are not permitted to participate in home-visits to their own family due to circumstances, Sponsors give the student a further opportunity to learn positive values, build esteem, and create positive relationships with adults.

 Other direct volunteers can help by providing tutoring assistance, teaching a group of students a hobby, or assisting in transportation, recreation, and maintenance duties.  Suggestions are welcome as to other program possibilities.    

Indirect volunteers can choose to help at Christmas time with the Annual W.A.E.B Christmas Party and preparations, during other holidays, in our Thrift Stores, or with on-grounds improvement projects.  Again, suggestions are welcome. 

Volunteers can provide services individually or in groups.  In whichever capacity community members volunteer, their efforts are always greatly appreciated by everyone at The Children’s Home just because they make a difference by caring enough to take the first step to volunteer. 

If you are interested in volunteering with The Children’s Home, please contact 610-258-2831 ext. 151. 

Firmstone Institute
A REAL and PERMANENT ANSWER TO SERIOUS LEARNING ISSUES

The Firmstone Institute works with families and children, for whom school is a daily struggle and learning a constant frustration. Our treatment programs focus on healing an individual's learning disorder, not just working around it. Our program utilizes the Bellefonds Method, developed in Bordeaux, France, by Dr. David Feldman. This unique method tests eight areas of learning to identify specific deficits, and is followed up by an established re-education program which literally retrains the brain.

Not only has participation in the program been shown to diminish or eradicate learning disorders, but also builds a sense of achievement, pride, and greater self-esteem. The total program consist of a complete evaluation and diagnosis of a child's talents and learning challenges; a custom-designed regimen of daily exercises and activities that you and your child can work on together at home in 20 minutes or less; a weekly one hour schedule of treatment on site; and a focus on empowering the learner to function successfully in learning and life experience. The success we have experienced with local children continues to prompt very positive "word of mouth" testimonials. Our clients are children and adults.

Our program has been very successful in working with children diagnosed as ADD and other learning disabilities and involves the family in the therapy. The results have been remarkable.

Please contact us for further information. All contacts are strictly confidential. For further information, you may also visit our web site at www.firmstoneinstitute.org

Firmstone Institute: 610.258.2831, ext. 112 or (toll free) 877-708-3476
E-mail: firmstone@thechildrenshome.org.

ServiceNet Inc.: a collaboration of six long-established child welfare agencies

ServiceNet Inc. is a collaboration of six long-established child welfare agencies in southeastern Pennsylvania. Collectively, the six SNI agencies have more than 700 staff and 400 years of experience in providing child welfare services. ServiceNet is a new concept in child welfare services, facilitating an alliance of the six agencies. As a new agency, SNI is pioneering the future of collaborations among child welfare agencies and expects to become a national model. The first venture was in 1996 when the agencies came together with the Philadelphia Department of Human Services for a project know as B.A.S.S. (Better Access for Seamless Service). Although child welfare services have been around for hundreds of years, measuring the outcomes of services is relatively new to the field. SNI hopes its current outcomes project, funded in part by the William Penn Foundation, will be a model for other agencies and programs.

ServiceNet Inc. agencies include:  Carson Valley School (Flourtown and Mt. Airy); Children's Aid Society (Norristown, Lansdale, Logan/Olney); Children's Home of Easton; Presbyterian Children's Village (Rosemont and Southwest Philadelphia); Northern Home Children and Family Services (Philadelphia); and Women's Christian Alliance (Philadelphia). For further information, please contact ServiceNet Inc. at 610-279-2755 (telephone number for host agency, Children's Aid Society). Web address: www.servicenetforchildren.org.

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