How Reunity House in South Orange Changed Foster Care Reunification in NJ

Mary Mann - The Village Green

Family Connections, a local non-profit organization in Essex county, New Jersey in the United States, has developed a program called Reunity House, which is designed to help permanently reunify children in foster care with their parents. In response to the Family Connections reached out to parents who were involved in the foster care system to get their feedback on the visitation process and other concerns. The project addressed these issues by offering a more comfortable space “conducive” to family visits and not cancelling visits. Furthermore, staff members of Reunity House, according to the article, are all family therapists and support parents by reviewing video recordings of visits with the parents to help them strengthen their parenting skills. The program has set the standard for the rest of the state and is regarded as the “premiere family visit model.”