Extended Family Support

Helping Extended Families Care for Children

Children’s Home + Aid Extended Family Support program provides services to relatives caring for children via referral from DCFS whose parents are unable or unwilling to care for them. The program offers services to support kinship care and avoid disruption of the family placement.  The primary service of the Extended Family Support program is assisting relatives to obtain legal guardianship of the child for school enrollment, child care assistance, medical services, insurance coverage and public assistance. Services are short term and are intended to stabilize the relative household to allow for continued care of the child with his or her relative.  Other services may include the provision of beds and dressers, appliances, smoke detectors, security deposits and emergency food provisions. Clients are not charged fees for Extended Family Support services.

The Extended Family Support program is offered in the Metropolitan, Mid-Central, and Southern Regions.