About CHS
Children’s Home Society of Virginia is a permanency-driven, trauma-informed organization with a mission to build strong permanent families and lifelong relationships for Virginia’s at-risk children and youth.
We are one of Virginia’s oldest private adoption agencies, and have served more than 14,000 Virginia children since 1900. CHS has evolved to meet the changing needs of children, and now focuses on the most challenging placements of youth out of foster care and into permanency.
The CHS staff are experts on trauma and apply industry best-practices. All of our programs utilize trauma-informed approaches to provide permanency to vulnerable infants, children and youth along a continuum of care.
Foster Care Adoption
Ensuring children and youth thrive in new families. Since 1900, CHS has worked with a sense of urgency to ensure that at-risk children and youth
grow up in nurturing families who are prepared to meet their needs. In addition to assisting families with private adoptions, CHS recruits
and trains families to adopt children and youth from foster care. Our focus is on children ages 12 and older, who often wait the longest to
be adopted. Families participate in our approval process that includes trauma-informed training and a home study. We then match them with
a waiting child based on the child’s individual needs, personality and background. CHS guides the legal adoption process which formalizes the child becoming a permanent member of the family.
Post Adoption Program
Providing adoptive families services for positive growth and development. The CHS Post Adoption Program* serves Central
and Northern Virginia’s adoptive families in collaboration with the Virginia Department of Social Services and other service providers in
the state. We work to increase the likelihood of successful adoptions and attachment within the family.
CHS services include a variety of family and youth services designed to meet the individual needs of our families. No matter how long
ago you adopted, we are here to help with free post adoption services and supports.
My Path Forward
MY PATH FORWARD (MPF) and MY PATH FORWARD-ILA (INDEPENDENT LIVING ARRANGEMENT)
Empowering youth for independence. In partnership with The Better Housing Coalition, CHS is serving youth who are preparing to transition from foster care to independence. Our best-practice program model reaches a population that needs us—vulnerable young people who were released from foster care after they turned 18 and face dire outcomes without support and guidance. Virginia has one of the highest rates of youth aging out of foster care in the country.
Our research-based programs for youth transitioning from foster care provide housing and a variety of trauma informed wrap-around supports to youth including job training, access to education, financial literacy and life skills. My Path Forward–Independent Living Arrangement (MPF–ILA) serves youth from 18-20. My Path Forward (MPF) further serves youth with affordable housing and continued supportive services until age 25.
A research study we commissioned with Child Trends, a nationally recognized research firm, provides insight into relevant laws, policies and programs nationwide that help us better understand and support these young adults.
For more about what we do, please visit CHSVA.org.
