Serving Hands. Caring Hearts. Fostering Hope.
Providing foster care is an act of love. Foster care is heartbreaking, often messy and always traumatic. But when addressed with compassion and empathy, it can also provide the opportunity for joy and hope. COBYS is called to provide that kind of care. As the intermediary between local government and court systems we manage and oversee foster care services for children who need safe and loving homes.
Train and approve families to care for children.
Provide ongoing support to foster children and families through regular visits, guidance, and 24/7 caseworker access.
Receive referrals for children in foster care from county child welfare agencies.
Provide financial assistance to foster families which helps to cover the child's living and travel expenses.
Becoming a foster family is a process designed to educate and empower families to partner with COBYS to provide the best care possible for children in foster care.
The COBYS Information Session is a virtual meeting held from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., offered twice each month with our Foster Care staff. The session includes an introduction to the foster care system, the children and families involved, as well as information about the roles, responsibilities, and expectations for foster families. The session will outline the approval process to become a foster family and provide a chance to ask questions. As this meeting is designed to help families decide if foster care is a good fit for their family, married couples should attend together. Due to the sensitive nature of some content, children are not permitted to attend and childcare is not provided. Following the Information Session, attendees are eligible to submit the application form to pursue becoming a resource family.
Various types of families are needed, including married or single persons, families with or without biological children, and families with or without a stay-at-home caregiver. Our greatest need is for families willing to parent teens, sibling groups, minority children, and medically fragile children.
In order to allow children to remain in their home school districts we need families throughout Lancaster County and the surrounding area. The COBYS coverage area generally includes a radius of one hour driving distance to our Murry Hill Center (444 Murry Hill Circle, Lancaster, PA 17601), from southern Lancaster County into parts of Berks, Lebanon, Schuylkill and York counties.
All children adopted through COBYS’ SWAN program begin as foster children. When children come into foster care, the goal is almost always reunification. Children belong with their biological families when deemed safe and appropriate. In the case that children cannot return home, the courts will look towards the resource parents for adoption. Resource parents can state their interest in adoption as a foster-to-adopt family upon entrance into the COBYS program or any time throughout their foster care service. Outcomes reflect that between 20 and 25 percent of children that are placed with COBYS’ foster care program are adopted by their resource family.
Foster children generally remain in care between six months and two years. Birth families typically receive 15 months to correct the issues that led to the child’s placement in foster care. At any point, a foster child may transition to the care of an approved kinship resource in order to allow the child to reside with their family.
The COBYS Permanency Unit is a specialized program whose goal, when possible, is to reunify children in foster care with their biological family. COBYS is contracted by Lancaster County Children and Youth Social Service Agency to serve children and families in the Lancaster County foster care system. The Permanency program has the mission of ensuring the safety of children, strengthening families, and securing permanency for children. The COBYS Permanency Unit performs the functions and duties of county caseworkers, but with the COBYS Difference.
Based in Lancaster, COBYS staff help children and members of their biological families to resolve the issues that led to their separation, so that children can be safely reunited with their families. Commonly addressed issues include drug and alcohol abuse, anger, mental illness, substandard housing or homelessness, insufficient parenting skills, unemployment, and domestic violence.
Children are nurtured through placement with supportive foster families, frequent caseworker visits, therapy, and educational assistance, as needed.
By working intensively with individual family members, the program promotes a stronger and more stable family unit, shortens the duration of foster care placement, and helps families understand their needs and how to draw on community resources to meet those needs.
In cases where reunification would jeopardize a child’s safety, adoptive homes or other appropriate permanent placements are sought.
If you've considered becoming a foster family, request information and sign up for the free Information Session.