ELIGIBILITY CONSIDERATIONS
Sibling Connections’ mission is to provide as many separated sibling groups as possible the opportunity to spend quality time together. We provide positive experiences for siblings to enjoy typical fun activities in the community. While our volunteers receive trauma informed training on positive youth development and behavior management, we are not a therapeutic program and are not able to provide 1:1 supervision. We typically maintain a 1:3 volunteer to participant ratio.
For this reason, the registration form will ask questions about past and current behavioral issues. We look at every case individually and schedule discussions with each social worker to get to know the youth and to discuss effective behavior management strategies. Behavior areas of highest concern include a history of self-harm or harm to others, fire starting, and running.
We also meet with each foster family and youth individually to orient them to our programs, get them excited about participation, and set expectations regarding attendance and behavior during the outings.
FEES & TRANSPORTATION
Sibling Socials and other day programs: Day programs are free for participants. When able, we will provide transportation.
Weekend Retreats: Weekend retreats (Friday afternoon-Sunday lunch) cost $175 per enrolled sibling. We are able to help with transportation for some of the participants, but may ask some caregivers to help with transport.
Camp Sibling Connections: We have a DCF negotiated contract rate of $587/camper for our week of overnight camp each August. If you are registering a youth in DCF foster care, it is necessary to obtain approval from the Area Manager, Business Manager, or Camp Coordinator in your office before registering. We provide bus transportation from multiple locations throughout Massachusetts.
If a youth is adopted/in a legal guardianship or there are other financial hardship circumstances, we will offer financial aid to families on a case-by-case basis.
ENROLLMENT PROCEDURES
If you have questions about our programs or eligibility prior to submitting the registration form, please contact our Operations Director, Leslie Hopper, at leslie@siblingconnections.org or at 617-501-1229.
Step One: Complete our REGISTRATION FORM, selecting the program(s) of interest. For our fee-based overnight programs, including Weekend Retreats, and our week of Residential Camp, if the sibling is in DCF care, the social worker must receive approval from the Area Manager, Business Manager, or Camp Coordinator from her/his DCF office before completing the registration.
Step Two: Our team will contact you after reviewing the sibling group’s application to set up a brief follow-up phone call to discuss the sibling group and provide final approval of the registration.
Step Three: Our team will conduct in-person intake visits (30-45 minutes) with each youth accepted into our program. We will cover rules and expectations, show pictures of past events, and answer any questions the child or family have. While we prefer to have in-take meetings in-person, but we will consider online meetings as needed.