Professional Services

This strategy can be deployed by a small group of collaborating churches, agencies, and/or bridge organizations to support their client families. 

By initiating conversations about partnership opportunities, these churches or organizations can create a referral network to connect foster families with supportive, values-aligned services. This model provides a roadmap for vetting professionals, negotiating discounted rates for families, and fully covering or partially subsidizing those discounted rates to remove much or all of the burden of therapy costs from a family.

A Therapeutic Coordinator develops a list of vetted professionals offering counseling or other therapeutic services and works to match individuals or families who are in need of those services to a best-fit provider. The vetting process involves contacting potential providers with a standard partnership email, conducting a screening meeting (either in-person or virtual), and signing a Provider Agreement to ensure quality and commitment.

Costs vary depending on the providers involved and the number of individuals or families receiving services. Most ongoing expenses are tied to the cost of the counseling and coaching sessions. Rates vary by provider, but we strongly encourage negotiating reduced rates for nonprofit or ministry-based partnerships.

Other initial costs may include time and resources spent on:

• Building a provider network (identifying and vetting counselors or coaches)
• Establishing referral and payment systems
• Training or onboarding providers in trauma-informed, foster care-specific practices (if needed)

The Therapeutic Coordinator is the key role required to implement this model. This individual is responsible for both building a network of vetted service providers and matching individuals or families with the most appropriate provider. Depending on the number of those receiving counseling support, the role may require up to 15–30 hours per week, particularly during the initial setup phase. It can be filled by either a paid staff member or a volunteer. This role could be shared by more than one person if necessary but ideally is only one person to help maintain consistency of relationship with the network of providers and families.

Ideally, the individual filling this role should also possess some inherent skills for identifying appropriate providers and matching them accordingly with families. Background or experience related to foster or adoptive parenting, trauma-informed care, or counseling could prove helpful in this role.

In some cases, families being supported by this model could be asked to complete a questionnaire to better support the Coordinator in appropriate matching.

The timeline can vary depending on the availability and responsiveness of therapeutic providers. In most cases, this model can start small with 1-5 providers within 4-6 weeks.

Yes, A Door of Hope is a CAFO Member organization.