Home • Intensive In Home Services • Family Focus • Mentoring/In Home Support • ISL Services to Youth with Disabilities • Case Management

• Intensive Planning done in partnership with the family, informal supports and professionals involved with the youth and/or family. • Plans are based on the strengths of the youth, family and support network. • Plans are individualized to meet the needs of the youth and family. • Plans are changed when they do not work or when the needs change.
• Plans are connected to the community in which the youth and/or family regards as home.

• Parents and children are entitled to respect and a crucial voice in their own plans.
• Plans for service are based on the strengths of a youth and family.
• Every child is entitled to a safe, secure and permanent home.
• Whenever possible it is best for children to be raised in their own home or with members of their extended family.
• Services are the most effective when conducted in partnership with families and community resources.
• Services should be directed toward the preservation of the family as a unit and avoidance of out of home placement.
• Only those services needed specifically by each child and family should be “wrapped around” the family while they gain the strength to solve their problems.
• If possible, early home and community-based services support families to protect the safety and well-being of their own children and avoid institutional placement and family disruption.
• The family is the center of the team and are the experts on themselves.
• Families profit from unconditional support, strength-based perspectives and development of a community-based, individualized and culturally sensitive process of intervention and support.


We provide services to youth and families in Greene, Christian, Jackson, Cass, Clay, Howell, Butler, Wayne, Ripley, Oregon and Phelps counties and serve youth from other counties in our transitional services programs in Springfield and Rolla. Our services are provided where they are needed. Examples include family homes, foster homes, schools, other home-based settings and short term, transitional group homes.

We support youth and families with complex needs and work closely with other agencies and providers to develop an integrated plan of assistance with each individual or family.

Examples of Complex Needs:
• Children and youth who are at risk of being removed from home or who have been removed and the goal is reunification.
• Children and youth with serious emotional, neurobiological or behavioral disturbance.
• Families, children and youth having problems that place the children or youth at risk.


Intensive In-Home Services are short term, intense services to a family whose children are in risk of placement with the goal of keeping the family intact while building parenting skills and community supports. Our intention is to “move in safety and support as opposed to moving the child or children out.”

Services are delivered through a strengths based wraparound process in which a teaching model and skill-building result in improved child and family relationships. Families are empowered to stay together.

An assessment and an immediate safety plan is developed for the family which addresses crisis planning and interventions so parents, with immediate support, become experienced in a positive approach to crisis and behavioral issues.

Families have access by pager to the IIS Specialist 24 hours a day and the specialist meets with the family an average of 8-10 hours a week. The family, IIS Specialist and the referral source (Children’s Division) meet once a week during the 4 to 6 week intervention period.

Criteria for Services: 1. One or more children must be at immediate risk of out of home placement. 2. Children between the ages of 0 to 21. 3. Participation of the child and at least one parent is required. All family members are encouraged to participate. 4. Assessment must be jointly completed with the family, referral source and IIS Specialist within 24 hours of initial referral. 5. Safey must be assured for the at risk child/ren, their family, the community and the IIS staff.

Referrals:
Referrals from Butler County should contact the Butler County Children’s Division at 573-840-9200, Referrals from Howell County should contact Sharon Head at 417-256-7121.

Location of Services:
A.O. Inc presently has contracts to provide Intensive In-Home Services in Carter, Ripley, Butler, Wayne and Howell counties in southern Missouri.


Intensive Services that are designed to expedite the youth’s return home from residential care to his or her family of origin or other resource. Family Focused Residential is a service that may take place partly in a residential center and partly in the child’s and family's home. Some youth may be served in residential but have a plan to return home. We, or another agency, may provide residential treatment while, at the same time, working with the family. If another agency provides the residential placement, A.O. Inc. may provide in home services to the family while the youth is in placement, support during visits home and then regular mentoring to the family after the child or youth returns home. We have also used treatment family homes as the residential piece of the contract and again worked to send the child home. This is a short term, nine month contract with the goal of supporting children and families to reunite after residential placement.

Our focus is on empowering the family to handle problems and create a safe and nurturing environment for the entire family. The family is the expert on their family and we work with them to help them create the supports they need to care for their own.

Goals:
• Prevent the need for long-term residential placement for children who would normally be placed in this type of care;
• Actively engage the family in the treatment process while the youth is in residential care and assist the family in resuming full time care for the child outside of the residential setting;
• Increase the youth’s inclusion into the family and the family’s inclusion into the community with increasing family empowerment and less reliance on intensive service deliveries;
• Move the child from more restrictive educational settings to the least restrictive settings as appropriate;
• Reduce or eliminate the child’s involvement with the juvenile justice and child welfare systems as measured by decreased referrals and/or court involvement, unless clinically indicated.

Location of Services:
We currently provide services in Greene, Christian, Jackson, Clay and Howell counties but would be willing to consider providing this service wherever we have offices.

Family Assistance is an hourly contract that is used by the Children’s Division to provide support to children and families in the community. This support often occurs through mentoring both parents and/or children to access natural supports in the community. It could include showing or temporary one-on-one supervision of a child at home, school, or other location and/or role modeling and supporting a parent in their management of their child.