EmberHope Connections resumes care contract in Sedgwick County after 11-year hiatus

EmberHope Connections is taking steps to improve foster care metrics in the Wichita area. The nonprofit took over a state contract on July 1 that was previously held by Saint Francis Ministries. (Cami Koons for Kansas Reflector)

EmberHope Connections has increased its staff and initiated partnerships with local agencies to fill its role as the new foster care contractor in Sedgwick County.

The faith-based nonprofit, which took over the state contact previously held by Saint Francis Ministries on July 1, believes these measures will help improve historically below-average foster care metrics in the region.

Brenda Watkins, the president of EmberHope Connections in Wichita, said she has had a busy past couple of months, digging through paper files from the previous contractor and figuring out how to bring the region into compliance.

“We’re very pleased with how things have transitioned,” Watkins said, despite the company only having four months to prepare.

EmberHope held the Sedgwick County contract from 1997, when Kansas first privatized its foster care program, until 2013, when Saint Francis Ministries outbid the Newton-based company.

“We did the work,” Watkins said. “We have stepped away from it for a few years, and now we’re back to handling all of the youth that are in foster care in Sedgwick County. … I think we’re able to just kind of pick up with where we left off.”

The state declined to renew its contract with Saint Francis Ministries for the Wichita area two years after its former CEO was indicted on attempts to defraud the company of at least $4.7 million.

Teresa Woody, the litigation director at Kansas Appleseed, which sued the state in 2018 over instability in the foster care system, said Sedgwick County has been a “particularly troublesome” place for foster care in recent years.

Nearly 20% of the state’s foster kids live in the greater Wichita area.

Woody said while Saint Francis Ministries held the contract for the area, youths were frequently sleeping in offices and being bused to day centers.

“Hopefully EmberHope will have the personnel they need, the records they need — all those things to help this transition go smoothly,” Woody said. “But it’s going to be challenging.”

A spokesperson from Saint Francis said in an email statement that under new leadership the company has “undergone significant, positive changes” in recent years and has been committed to supporting EmberHope through the transition.

“Both of our organizations have been dedicated to the successful transition and look forward to continued collaboration on behalf of children and families in our community,” the statement said.

In 2020, Kansas Appleseed reached a settlement with the Kansas Department for Children and Families to “transform an overburdened, mismanaged and dangerous foster care system.” Some of the settlement agreements include ending night-to-night placement of children, ending the practice of foster kids sleeping overnight  in offices or other unfit locations, and creating greater accountability within the system.

So far, the state has failed to live up to many of those goals .

Mike Fonkert, the deputy director at Kansas Appleseed, said the number of children in the foster care system has declined, but there is still a need for those improvements to the system.

“There’s a long way to go yet to achieve a system that I think we can all feel comfortable that if a kid enters foster care, they are going to get what they need, when they need it,” Fonkert said.

According to a report on the Kansas foster care system by Center for the Study of Social Policy , Saint Francis Ministries had a significant number of its approximately 120 caseworkers carrying more than 30 cases each month in 2022.

Watkins said it is a priority to lower the caseload amounts to 15-25, which is compliant with the DCF settlement agreement. EmberHope Connections is about 94% staffed with 141 caseworkers in the Wichita region, serving around 1,350 foster children.

EmberHope Connections plans to work with local partners, like the University of Kansas Child and Adolescent Psychiatry program and the mental health provider Comcare, among others.

Watkins said the strongest partnership so far is with Pyxis , a day-service center for youths who need additional structure and supervision.

Fonkert said wraparound support from the community is vital to supporting the foster care population. However, he said he has seen organizations abuse day centers and use them as a long-term “warehousing” solution for children who are difficult to place.

“The ultimate goal of foster care is to put kids in stable, loving, supportive placements,” Fonkert said. “We just know from research and past experiences here in Kansas that those group settings don’t deliver that.”

Woody added that the concern with a group setting is that it doesn’t address individual needs.

“We have hopes that EmberHope will be in a position to really provide what these kids need,” she said. “And there are a lot of needs out there for these kids.”

EmberHope staff worked to digitize the paper case files passed over from Saint Francis Ministries as part of its effort to keep better track of individual cases.

Watkins said EmberHope is in the process of opening a youth residential center in Goddard, and its affiliate EmberHope Youthville, received a grant from DCF to develop 12 therapeutic family foster homes by June 30, 2025.

“This is very challenging work with very challenging kids, and very challenging circumstances,” Watkins said, emphasizing the ultimate goal of finding long-term placement. “There’s a lot of exciting initiatives, and a lot of system improvement projects, and just a lot of different things that we’re collaborating or engaging at the community level.”

Fonkert is hopeful that EmberHope’s initiatives can achieve better results in the Wichita area.

“Every new contract, really every day, we have an opportunity to commit ourselves to doing right by our foster kids,” Fonkert said.

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