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Welcome to New Alternatives for Children—A place where children with disabilities and their families find support and services.

NAC's Mission:
New Alternatives for Children, Inc. was founded on the belief that all children, including those who are chronically ill or physically challenged, have the right to live in safe, loving, and permanent family homes.

NAC's mission is to provide innovative, high quality services in support of birth, foster, and adoptive families who are caring for children with special medical needs at home. Working primarily with children whose birth families live in poverty, NAC seeks to enable them to remain in, or return to, their homes whenever possible, or to be adopted by loving families when necessary. NAC’s innovative services ensure that the physical, social, educational, recreational, healthcare, and mental health needs of medically fragile children are met. By supporting families, NAC prevents the institutionalization of children, precludes lengthy stays in foster care, and facilitates the timely discharge of children from hospitals where they may have lived well beyond medical need. NAC builds on family strengths, provides opportunities, and assists all family members in reaching for and realizing their dreams.

Comprehensive services are offered through two major program divisions at NAC: the Preventive Services Program and the Foster Care and Adoption Program. Our Preventive Services Program provides comprehensive family support services including parent support groups, a Sibling Program, and Partners in Parenting (PIP), an after-care preventive services program for families. Within our Foster Care and Adoption Program exists the Homefinding Department and the Post Legal Adoption Network (PLAN). We help families who are involved in the foster care system to reunify and we find adoptive homes for children whose parents can no longer take care of their needs.

NAC knows that it can be overwhelming for caregivers to negotiate the complex systems of New York City to find services for children with disabilities. NAC can help open a world of opportunities and possibilities for children with disabilities and assist the entire family in reaching its potential.

NAC History:
New Alternatives for Children (NAC) was founded in 1982 as a demonstration project with a start-up budget of $100,000. NAC was given the task of developing an agency dedicated to helping children with severe disabilities move out of hospitals and into loving homes. At the time, "hospital boarder children" in New York City area were reaching crisis proportions. Under the leadership of Dr. Arlene Goldsmith, the current Executive Director, NAC sets forward to meet the needs of these underserved children.

During the years of 1982-1985, the small NAC staff developed an agency structure, secured city contracts, and located children who were languishing in hospitals. In 1985, NAC opened its doors to 15 families in the Prevention Program. NAC helped these families secure support services enabling their medically fragile children to come home from the hospital, in some cases, for the first time.

NAC has been growing ever since, establishing new program components to meet the many needs of families who have children with disabilities. The Foster Care and Adoption Program was initiated in 1987. 1993 witnessed the introduction of Early Intervention Services for children 0-3, and in 1994, NAC added the Post Legal Adoption Network Program (PLAN). In 1995 a Sibling Program to serve the needs of the brothers and sisters of NAC eligible children was introduced. In 1998 the Partners In Parenting (PIP) preventive services after-care program began.

NAC currently employs over 80 people and is supported by an annual budget of $8 million. The staff provides comprehensive services to over 350 children with disabilities and their families.

 
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