Lilyfield provides foster care for children ages 0 to 17 years who are in the custody of the State of Oklahoma due to child abuse or neglect. The staff of Lilyfield and the foster parents form a team to provide a healthy, healing environment for the children placed in the foster homes as well as their family members.
Lilyfield’s Foster Care program certifies homes utilizing the Bridge Concept. A Bridge Foster family is a family who may be asked to provide temporary care, love and nurturance to the child, and serve as a mentor actively helping the parent improve their ability to safely care for their children. A Bridge Foster Home will stay connected to the child and assist in the transition to reunification, legal guardianship or adoption to another family. A Bridge Foster Home may also serve as a legal guardian for the child while maintaining a child’s connection to kin, culture and community. A Bridge Foster Home may adopt the child while maintaining a child’s connection to kin, culture and community.
Lilyfield's foster care program is centered on the belief that caring for children in need of families is a primary calling of the Christian church. Christian families find our programs particularly meaningful. Lilyfield identifies with their faith position, and understands that they receive their purpose and calling through their faith, and their church families create a natural support system around them as they walk through the emotional journey of being foster parents. The wrap around supportive services of Lilyfield help ensure that our foster families are prepared and equipped for long term foster parenting.
Lilyfield recruits foster parents from the community, through local churches, word of mouth, informational meetings and referrals from other foster families. We work with them to help educate their friends and family about the foster care process. We provide all of the required training through our certified trainers, with the unique perspective of a faith based organization. From the beginning, our families view their role as foster parents as a ministry. Our families are eager to serve not only foster children, but their biological families and the OKDHS caseworkers who are working with those biological families.
Lilyfield provides the comprehensive services needed to become a certified foster family. From training to home studies and foster home supervision, our agency guides families through each step of the journey.
After families are certified, we work closely with the Oklahoma Department of Human Services to ensure that our families are able to take placement of and care for the specific children who have the greatest need for placement, and are the best fit for the individual family’s circumstances.
Lilyfield staff members are trained in a variety of models of care to support our families. We rely on Trust Based Relational Intervention and Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to guide much of our training and services to families. The children served by Lilyfield's foster care program have experienced trauma and are hurting when they arrive in our families and our agency is committed to equipping families with resources needed to help the children find healing.
We provide the following support services once a family has placement:
- Meals during the first few days following a new placement
- Weekly phone calls with a Lilyfield caseworker
- Monthly in-home visitation with a Lilyfield caseworker
- Referrals and support for any needed services
- Liaison services between the foster family and the Oklahoma Department of Human Services
- Ongoing education and training
- Monthly Support Groups and Therapeutic Services through our Care Connect Program
- Support for items needed for foster children placed in the foster home
