When family systems break down or a crisis occurs, we’re here to help. We work tirelessly to make sure every child is cared for in a safe and secure home—whether they need short-term care while a family is in transition or a permanent place to call their own.
Foster Care Services
When children enter foster care, we provide foster homes to care for these youth while their families get back on their feet. We work hard with the child’s custodial team to reunite these families. We keep children safe and well cared for while their families are getting the help they need. We offer emergency, short-term, long-term, and whole-family foster services.
Our foster parents are incredibly important to us, and we’re here to provide ongoing training, 24/7 crisis support, and respite care along the way.
Adoption Services
As a licensed adoption agency, we work hard to help bring youth and parents together in permanent family settings. Our services are provided free of charge and include:
- Adoption home studies and home study updates
- Parent training and education
- Child-specific recruitment services
- Child placement services
- Relative adoption services
- Post adoption services
- Wendy’s Wonderful Kids affiliate
Nexus-Kindred’s Relative & Kin Support Services are for families who are caring for
a relative’s child and need support and education. Families can also receive help with obtaining foster care licensing if they desire to continue fostering kin or other children.
Relative & Kin Support Services offers families:
- Connections to local support services
- Education on mental health and youth trauma
- Support in navigating new or strained family dynamics
- Help in understanding the complex human services system
The Relative & Kin Support Services serves an approximate 120-mile area around Waite Park, MN.
This Kinship Navigation Tool is a collaborative effort on behalf of the Kinship Working Group from AspireMN. This tool offers free, unlimited access to information and answers to some of the most frequently asked questions for kinship caregivers.
We provide opportunities for foster kids to spend time with their families and/or receive therapeutic support in a supervised setting. These visits can take place in our Nexus-Kindred offices, in the family’s home, or in other community settings.
The Supervised Visitation Services serves an approximate 120-mile area around Waite Park, MN.
The STAY (Successful Transition to Adulthood for Youth) Program offers independent living services to eligible youth ages 14 up to age 23, who are currently or were formerly in foster care and who are still working with a county or tribal social worker.
STAY services will help youth meet their independent living plan goals. Services available can vary depending on the county where the youth lives. Youth may be able to get help with:
- Independent living skills training
- Transportation costs
- Education services
- Employment services
- Permanent connections with long-term mentors, significant persons from their past, relative searches and contact with relatives or previous foster parents.
- Age-appropriate activities
- Room and board/housing assistance