OUR MISSION:
Try-Again Homes, Incorporated is a private, non-profit corporation committed to providing safe nurturing places for children in need and dedicated to the growth, development, and empowerment of individuals and families for healthier communities.

• Download the Foster / Adoptive Parent Application (Pennsylvania)
• Download the Foster / Adoptive Parent Application (West Virginia)
• Download the Release of Information (Fairmont, WV)
• Download the Release of Information (Parkersburg, WV)
• Download FAQ's about Foster parenting
• Download Foster Parenting Forms and Medical Worksheets
• Employment Opportunities

Each month, Try-Again Homes, Incorporated will feature a different training Try-Again Homes and continuing education article.  Please read the latest Foster Parent Training and Continuing Education Article.

OUR HISTORY:
Try-Again Homes was incorporated as a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation in 1976 by a group of ministers and lay people who felt a strong need to help abused, neglected and troubled children and families. Today, we serve more than 800 families throughout Pennsylvania and West Virginia annually. Our cost-effective, progressive programs are alternatives to institutional care and are geared to enhance and strengthen the lives of our families.

Board President's Message:

Brian J. Smith
Fiscal 2006 marked another year of expanded services and improved organizational infrastructure at Try-Again Homes. Organic growth in existing programs coupled with new family visitation services, a new foster care office in Allegheny County, PA, and a new Independent Living facility in Greene County, PA resulted in an approximate 10% increase in total revenues. Considerable time and effort was invested in our West Virginia offices as we continued to raise awareness as to the urgent need for foster parents. At the present time, we are considering expansion of our foster care services into the Wheeling, West Virginia area.

Within the organization, quality assurance, program effectiveness, operating efficiency, and transparency continue to receive a lot of attention. However, our highest priority remains those children and youth who are in need of our services, as we continually strive to create a better living environment for the most vulnerable members of our society. We are once again preparing to begin our strategic planning process and look forward to the challenges and opportunities of the coming year.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE:

Gwen Davis
“Great necessities call out great virtues”- Abigail Adams

As families we serve have seen an uncertainty in the economy around them, the need for services has changed as well. Many more families have seen a greater and changing need for assistance.  To assist children, youth and families in this time, Try-Again Homes has been cognizant in shaping services provided to address the nuances of the challenges today.
 
Try-Again Homes has continued to focus on the need of the community and children we serve. This year Try-Again Homes opened an office in Greensburg, PA.  and added a Licensed Practical Counselor in WV to provide counseling services which are more accessible to the children and families we serve. We have also implemented a new Employee Recognition Program for outstanding service.
 
As Try-Again Homes, Inc. continues to strive to be a leader in quality services in the community, we continue to be appreciative of the graciousness of the community who has supported the efforts of Try-again Homes and continues to do so in turbulent economic times.  We have so many who have put forth their efforts to assist in any way they can such donations, utilizing their expertise to build playgrounds, and general community support.

As we work toward our strategic plan in the years to come, it is with great honor and responsibility we look to provide quality services to create healthy communities.  

Clinical Director's Report:

Allison Leon, Clinical Director
As one year ends and another begins, it is helpful to take stock of our progress over the past year as well as to consider the strides we still hope to make as the new year unfolds. The clinical staff and programs of Try-Again Homes have been through many changes over the past 4 years, with the overarching goal of providing excellent services to all of the client populations we serve. A more recent, but no less important goal has been to demonstrate substantive outcomes that help the various clients meet their treatment goals and the programs that serve them meet and surpass the industry standards that guide our planning.

The past few years have presented a challenge as programs, particularly in Pennsylvania, have continued to spread across a broad-spectrum service continuum. We currently provide services that range from one-session group interventions, to the traditional in-home and community-based services, to an after-school program, up through and including two residential programs, with an international child welfare program just on the horizon. West Virginia continues to focus primarily on Foster Care Services, but within foster care there is included a broad base of medically necessary services to maintain the stability of placements and children’s treatment needs. These may range from basic case management services to supportive and intensive counseling services, to psychological testing, and are inclusive of diverse client populations, including developmentally disabled, and medically fragile clients and the homes that foster them.

The counseling program for victims of crime continues to work with existing services in the communities served to envelope those client populations who have no other service options available to them; hoping to stem the tide of future child welfare issues for those families served. While this diversity of programs proves challenging for the clinical staff that provide the service, the inclusion of quality-oriented practice models permeates the service provision and the planning of the individual staff providers and their supervisors.

We have made great strides in the inclusion of all programs into the Continuous Quality Improvement process and have recently begun to pursue the inclusion of all departments in the process to further the quest for excellence in service. We have seen remarkable results in permanency outcomes for both foster care and adoption service clients consistently over the past three years as well as marked improvement in safety and stability for those children in out-of-home care. We continue to seek a more efficient method of tracking outcomes across programs while still making progress in the use of existing methods and incorporating those results into both program planning and strategic planning for the agency at large. In short, our aim is for quality to be “service ” here at Try-Again regardless of the program or service being given. After all in the words of Koffi Anan: ”There is no trust more sacred than the one the world holds with children.”

Child Welfare Through Community Building
We know that no one child and family serving system has the mandate, resources, or reach to address the personal issues or social and community conditions that are related to risk factors faced by families involved with child welfare systems. Hundreds of thousands of children and families are helped every day by the child welfare system and other child and family serving systems. Millions more, however, do not have access to available, appropriate, or equitable services and support. For far too many children and families, the failure to meet these human needs and basic rights has significant consequences. This includes lives filled with pain, suffering, and quiet desperation. Even so, Try-Again Homes has learned and on occasion succeeded. Community building is becoming an essential part of all aspects of Try-Again's development. When we work in or influence these systems, fundamentally change our roles with one another, change our relationships with the children, youth, and families we serve, and actively engage community stakeholders, we provide more strategic supports and can collaboratively achieve more effective outcomes for this most vulnerable population. This is the work before us. Community building helps return social work to its core mission of addressing families social, economic, and emotional needs. What is different from the past and reflective of visions of the future, is that in community building, the social worker's role is to build capacity in families and communities as they define their own goals, solutions, and assets. When community's residents do this, they learn they are capable of change and capable of caring for other families and neighbors. As you review our fiscal and operational performance over the 2006 & 2007 fiscal year, you will undoubtedly notice some thematic continuums within all our programs, and their ability to offer services to each and every child. It is our belief that with the continued support of individuals, corporations, and the foundations, this trend will continue and even flourish.