CareSource donates $50,000 to CHRIS 180 supporting foster and adoptive children throughout Georgia

Partnership funds programs that recruit adoptive parents and expand wraparound services to keep families together

ATLANTA, Ga. (March 2, 2023) – CareSource, a mission-driven Medicaid plan serving more than 500,000 Georgians, is awarding $50,000 to CHRIS 180, an Atlanta-based nonprofit organization that provides trauma-informed care and counseling services to children, youth, adults and families. CareSource’s donation will help CHRIS 180 expand its Keeping Families Together wraparound program, which provides trauma-informed, prevention-focused services to strengthen families, and their adoption and foster care programs, aimed at recruiting, training and supporting more foster and adoptive parents.

“I am a long-time advocate of CHRIS 180 because the approach prevents children from entering foster care and encourages permanency,” said Jason Bearden, CareSource Georgia president.  “CHRIS 180, over its more than 40-year history, has developed a unique set of programming, holistically focused on prevention, intervention and after care. We are proud to support and expand their outstanding work on behalf of Georgia's children and families.”

The Keeping Families Together wraparound program serves two important purposes. First, it aims to safely prevent children from being removed from their families and placed in foster care. Second, it focuses on reunifying families with their children when possible and supports the creation of new forever families through adoption. In both cases, the agency employs trauma-informed counseling and therapeutic services to stabilize and empower families.

CHRIS 180’s adoption and foster care programs train, approve and support new and existing foster and adoptive parents. The organization serves the economically and socially disadvantaged who have experienced life trauma and have persisted through cultural, systematic and structural discrimination and inequity based on race, ethnicity, origin, sexual orientation or gender identity. The organization also provides trauma-informed care to LGBTQ+ youth disproportionately represented in the foster care system.

“With nearly 12,000 children in the foster care system in Georgia, there is a great need for loving and trained foster and adoptive parents,” said Kathy Colbenson, licensed marriage and family therapist, president and CEO of CHRIS 180. “Many children age out of foster care before finding a permanent family, which can lead to homelessness, substance abuse and mental health challenges stemming from a lifetime of trauma. CareSource’s donation will allow us to amplify our efforts to identify and train prospective parents to help secure forever families for Georgia’s children.”

About CHRIS 180

Atlanta-based nonprofit CHRIS 180 was founded in 1981 and provides life-changing trauma-informed behavioral health services and wraparound support to children, adults, families and communities that empowers them to change the direction of their lives. For more than 40 years, the organization has worked with more than 100,000 clients to build resilience and heal from trauma, while becoming a well-respected leader in child welfare and a thought leader in supporting underserved and traumatized communities across Metro Atlanta. For more information, visit CHRIS180.org.