Who We Are

CARES (coordination, advocacy, resources, education and support) is a family-centered, strength-based and community-driven model for child abuse prevention and family preservation. The program’s unique “wraparound” approach and Family Team Conferencing offer services and support to families experiencing stressors that could lead to abuse, neglect or abandonment.

The program has had a positive impact on the families and children we serve, helping prevent situations or events that would result in a child being removed from his or her home. Its success is due to the proactive participation of the families in need, who openly engage in the process, building upon the successes and skills within their family unit that will sustain them long-term.

Since inception, CARES has provided support to more than 15,000 children and their families. In December 2009, Brevard C.A.R.E.S. became a wholly owned subsidiary of Brevard Family Partnership, with a goal of continuing to reduce the number of children entering the foster care system through abuse prevention. It is now CARES, a division of Family Partnerships of Central Florida, the child welfare lead agency for Brevard, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties.

The mission of CARES is to prevent child abuse and neglect by supporting and strengthening families so that they can remain together in the community.

Family Allies is a division of Family Partnerships of Central Florida that is dedicated to serving children in out-of-home care. Family Allies was founded in 2017 as a way of bringing case management under local control, and it allows our agency as a whole to better serve and provide a higher quality of service.

CARES (coordination, advocacy, resources, education and support) is a comprehensive and consumer-driven program, inclusive of the following practices:

• Facilitation of Family Team Conferences and engagement of families in a mutually respectful manner through the use of skilled facilitators;
• Use of a strength-based assessment to continue to build on the family strengths;
• Development of one well-coordinated plan that is responsive to the family’s identified needs with shared ownership and responsibility;
• Achievement of the vision that the family has shared of where they want to be;
• Provision of family-driven planning, access voice and ownership;
• Cultivation of a flexible service delivery system that is culturally competent, individualized and customized to the family’s needs;
• A focus on the inclusion of informal supports;
• Celebration of successes and accomplishments;
• Promotion of the social, emotional, physical, moral and cognitive development of each child; and,
• Adherence to the principles of Wraparound

If you are experiencing a crisis or are in need of assistance, please contact 211 Brevard by dialing 2-1-1.