The Baby's Breath Vision

Baby's Breath is a nonprofit 501(c) (3) organization located in a peaceful, wooded area, with ample room for playing outside and inside.

Professionally trained staff will be responsible for the eight babies who will live in the home at any one time. Babies will be referred by the Department of Social Services at which time a service plan for the child and biological parents will be created. The past history of the family's environment will then be assessed to gain an understanding of the child's individual needs. An experienced, masters-level clinician, or caseworker with family and child services background, will coordinate and determine a service plan of action.

The Baby's Breath program will:

• Identify the child's best chance for a healthy emotional future.
• Identify the factors necessary for successfully working with each family. This process includes an early-on effort to establish, re-establish, and/or enhance the bond between the infant and biological parents. It will also involve an expedited decision making process aimed at determining the earliest time where the bond is not viable. At that time a new Service Plan will be implemented with additional supports to include the likelihood of this early bond to become stable and constant.
• Offer a positive option for the expedited identification of appropriate parents where indicated, coupled with training in parenting skills and assistance in expediting the process. A key element of this aspect of the program will be efforts to accomplish options at an early enough age to facilitate bonding between parents and children.
• Provide full-service 24/7 transitional housing, case, and support for infants in need at a freestanding and fully staffed facility following DEEC ratio guidelines. This effort will be coordinated in a manner intended to provide the most "home like" atmosphere, with the stability of a consistent environment.

Children placed in the care of Baby's Breath will enjoy the benefits of sleeping in the same crib or bed, participating in the same daily routines of the program, and receiving consistent quality care and nurturing by carefully selected house parents and staff. We intend to eliminate the need for multiple placements and the constant readjustments necessary with numerous transitions in the first few years of life. Coming through one door, staying in one home for as long as needed, these at risk infants and toddlers will have their needs met and learn to trust the environment in which they live, promoting secure attachment, while the family of origin works toward stabilization. Baby's Breath seeks to provide the format necessary to secure a healthy transition into permanency placement for the child, minimizing the symptoms that lead to attachment disorder.