Our History

Childkind was founded in 1988 as a comprehensive support program for families with children born exposed to HIV/AIDS. Early programs included two residential care facilities, one a short term transitional care home and the other a temporary home for HIV+ mothers and their children, and voluntary short-term out-of-home family placement for mothers undergoing treatment or therapy.

In 1992 Childkind was licensed as a CPA and began providing foster and adoption placement for not only children exposed HIV/AIDS, but also those deemed medically fragile who were in state custody. By 1995 with the vertical transmission of AIDS to children declining, Childkind began focusing its family placement and support services towards children with complicated medical and developmental disabilities.

In 2007 Childkind began offering Family Support Services to its foster families after they had adopted the child in their home. It was a means to continue serving the family and to help support permanency. The program provides assistance accessing Medicaid waiver services, grants for equipment or minor home accessibility modifications, emergency medical supplies, coordination of school-based, community and other neighborhood programs and supports.

In an effort to reduce the number of medically fragile and developmentally disabled children entering foster care, Childkind began offering its Transition Support Services Program in December 2008. This program provides placement prevention and early intervention services, targeting families that are having trouble parenting children with medical or developmental challenges, families being reunited with their children after a period of out-of-home care or hospitalization, and families in crises as the result of a major life changing event.

Today, Childkind’s three program initiatives – Family Support Services, Transition Support Services, and Placement Services – form a continuum of care that aim towards a common goal: that children with medical and developmental disabilities live with their own families in a safe, stable, and nurturing environment.