Stanford Sierra Youth & Families (SSYAF) believes each
and every child deserves the love, safety and unconditional commitment of a family and the opportunity to develop as a healthy and productive adult. The organization provides a continuum of care to empower youth and families to overcome challenges together and also connects youth in foster care to permanent loving families. 

“During May, which is National Foster Care Month, we want to bring awareness to the need for safe and nurturing homes for youth in care over the age of 10. These young people never outgrow the need for a loving family. Through our Pathways to Permanency program, older children are connected to a family that can provide a sense of stability, lasting connections and guidance.”— Laura Heintz Psy.D., CEO

SSYAF’s Pathways to Permanency foster care and adoption program is focused on permanency — a permanent connection to a safe, stable and nurturing family for every youth. The program uses family-centered practices and supports several paths for youth to obtain lifelong family connections. The first and best option is to reunify the youth with their birth family when possible. If reunification is not possible, the organization works to identify a resource (foster/adoptive) family in the youth’s network who is willing to make a lifelong commitment to the youth through adoption. 

Last year, with the support of the community, SSYAF’s Pathways to Permanency program provided safe and loving homes to 122 youth. With nearly 3,000 local children in the foster care system in the Greater Sacramento region, there continues to be a critical need for resource families to provide the love, safety and unconditional commitment that youth in foster care need and deserve. 

How can you get involved? There are many ways to support. Make a difference in the lives of local youth through SSYAF today: Foster/Adopt, Mentor and/or Donate. 

For more information, call (916) 344-0199 or visit www.ssyaf.org