Bellefaire JCB’s foster care program provides a safe, stable, and nurturing environment for children who cannot remain with their biological families due to safety concerns, instability, or other challenges. Foster care allows children to heal and grow while maintaining continuity in education, relationships, and daily routines. The program protects children during vulnerable times, supports families working toward reunification when possible, and ensures that every child experiences consistent care, compassion, and security.

Treatment Foster Care

Our Treatment Foster Care program serves youth up to age 21 who have experienced chronic trauma, abuse, or significant mental health challenges and require a family-based placement. Bellefaire JCB equips foster parents with extensive training, ongoing support, and access to a full array of wraparound services across the agency. This ensures that youth receive individualized, high-quality care in a loving, stable home, helping them heal, grow, and thrive.

Wraparound Services

Each foster youth is treated as an individual. Their needs are carefully assessed at intake and monitored throughout their time in the program. Youth receive individualized treatment planning and coordinated services. Our team of social workers, therapists, and case managers provides weekly case management, ongoing diagnostic assessment, and psychiatric consultation. Additional services include:

• Psychiatric and pharmacological management
• Co-occurring mental health and substance use treatment
• Alcohol/drug assessment and treatment
• After-school group therapy
• Individual and group therapy

Permanent Homes for Foster Youth

While the primary goal of Treatment Foster Care is reunification with a child’s family, this is not always possible. Foster parents can become certified as Foster-to-Adopt homes, providing youth with permanent families to support and nurture them into adulthood.

Why Choose Bellefaire JCB?

Foster parents are never alone with Bellefaire. We provide:

• 24/7 on-call support and direct access to case managers
• Collaboration with master’s-level social workers and counselors across the agency

Access to mental health, substance use, and educational services for foster youth

Training for Foster Parents

We provide high-quality, comprehensive pre-service and ongoing training to help foster parents support youth with complex needs. Training includes intensive weekend licensing sessions and specialized instruction for caring for severely abused, neglected, or traumatized youth.

• Pre-Placement Training Schedule – Winter 2026
• Training Documentation/Evaluation
• Ongoing Calendar

For more information, call 216-320-8251 or email FPTraining@bellefairejcb.org

Support and Teamwork:

Foster parents receive:

• Up to 5 paid respite days per month
• 24-hour on-call support for crisis intervention
• Intensive case management
• Guidance from a foster parent liaison, case aide, and licensed case managers
• Monthly foster parent support groups

Could You Be a Foster Parent?

Whether as a Foster Parent or Respite Foster Home, you can make a life-changing impact on a youth. Successful foster parents often have:

• Dedication to making a difference in a youth’s life
• Readiness to work closely with a team of professionals
• Patience, consistency, and emotional maturity
• A strong support system
• Willingness to adapt their lifestyle to meet a youth’s needs
• Ability to look beyond behaviors to understand needs
• A caring attitude, understanding, and sense of humor

Becoming a Foster Parent

Steps to get started:

• Attend a Meet & Greet / Information Session
• Complete pre-placement training
• Review qualifications and FAQs
  Learn more at NYAP Become a Foster Parent and Foster Parent FAQs

Call 216-320-8251 or email FPLicensing@bellefairejcb.org to start your journey as a foster parent.

Current Foster Parents

Helpful links for current foster parents:

• Respite Payment Request
• Weekly Log of Functioning

The Foster Youth Mentoring Program has, for nearly a decade, provided the stability of a caring, consistent adult volunteer to youth ages 10–21 who are in the permanent custody of Cuyahoga County or have a Planned Permanent Living Arrangement (PPLA). Grounded in the nationally recognized standards of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, the program offers intentionally structured, high-quality mentoring relationships that promote connection, resilience, and long-term stability.

Mentor–mentee matches participate in two community-based, one-on-one outings each month, quarterly group activities, and annual match anniversary celebrations. Participation is voluntary, and youth are empowered with meaningful choice throughout the mentoring process. Young people have an active voice in selecting a mentor from a pool of carefully screened and approved volunteers, ensuring relationships are built on compatibility, trust, and mutual respect.

Over time, mentors and youth develop authentic, supportive connections through shared experiences, learning, and positive engagement. These relationships often become an essential part of the natural support system many foster youth lack, offering consistency, encouragement, and reliable adult presence during critical developmental years.

Youth are referred to the program by their guardian and the Cuyahoga County Department of Child and Family Services. Following referral, both the youth and caregiver participate in an interview to ensure the program is an appropriate fit and that the youth’s strengths, interests, and personality are intentionally considered during the matching process. Youth must be willing to participate and demonstrate the ability to maintain safety in the community with a volunteer mentor, who is not expected to manage behavioral concerns or crises.

Caregivers are essential partners in the mentoring relationship and are expected to communicate regularly with mentors to support consistent scheduling. Mentoring time should not be withheld as a consequence for unmet expectations in other areas, as consistency and relationship-building are central to program success.More information, photos, and videos can be found on Instagram and Facebook @FosterYouthMentoring.

 Get Involved:

• Mentor Application

Reference Forms:

• Work and School Reference
• Personal Reference

Jewish Big Brother Big Sister

The Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters program (JBBBS) creates meaningful, long-term mentoring relationships that play a vital role in helping young people build confidence, resilience, and a strong sense of identity and belonging. A trusted presence in the lives of children and adolescents, mentors provide consistent guidance, encouragement, and positive role modeling—protective factors that are proven to support healthy development and emotional well-being.

What sets JBBBS apart is its clinical foundation. Each mentoring relationship is thoughtfully matched and supported by licensed clinical social workers, ensuring a high standard of care and ongoing guidance for both mentors (“Bigs”) and youth (“Littles”). This professional oversight strengthens relationships, supports families, and helps address challenges as they arise, allowing matches to grow safely, intentionally, and successfully over time.

Founded in 1919, JBBBSA has a proud legacy of strengthening lives through connection, mentorship, and community. Supported by generous community donors and the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, participation is offered at no cost to families.

JBBBS serves Jewish children and adolescents ages 6 to 18 throughout Cuyahoga and surrounding counties who would benefit from a stable, caring adult mentor. Adult mentors, ages 21 and older, complete a comprehensive screening, training, and matching process, including background and driving checks. Both mentors and mentees participate in a structured application, interview, and matching process designed to ensure compatibility based on interests, personality, and family input. Families are active partners in the mentoring relationship and receive ongoing support, including regular check-ins with a dedicated match support specialist.

JBBBS fosters lasting relationships that positively shape the lives of young people and the adults who mentor them, creating meaningful impact across generations.

“When I was 22, a friend convinced me to become a Big Sister with Bellefaire JCB. Pow! I never expected that my Little would become one of my strongest sources of energy. The past four and a half years have been such a meaningful experience for both of us. Hannah helps me see the world clearly and I help support her dreams.”

Get Involved:

• Littles Application
• Bigs Application

Reference Forms:

• Work and School Reference
• Personal Reference

Adoption provides children with the love, stability, and permanency they deserve. It can also fulfill the desire of families to expand or complete their circle of love, or help birthparents place their child in a safe, supportive, and nurturing home.

Founded as an orphanage in 1868, Bellefaire JCB is now one of the nation’s longest-established child placement and adoption agencies. We provide adoption services to prospective adoptive families, expectant parents, and adoptees, guided by experienced, degreed, licensed social workers, counselors, and certified Adoption Assessors. Our specialists provide individualized support throughout every step of the adoption process.

Our services and support extend though every step of the adoption process and include:

• Pre-and post-adoption counseling
• Facilitating adoptive placements
• Counseling/financial assistance to birth parents
• Home study services for domestic and international adoptions*
• Post placement supervision and reports

*Bellefaire is a Hague-Accredited International Adoption Program.

Speak with an Adoption Specialist today: Call 216-509-9020 or request more information.

For Adoptive Families

Adoption is a lifelong decision that requires guidance, support, and professional expertise at every stage. Our team offers years of experience to help ensure a positive experience and smooth transition before, during, and after adoption. Services for adoptive families include:

• Pre-adoption counseling to define hopes and expectations
• Comprehensive services including home study, post-placement supervision, and court finalization
• Post-finalization counseling and related support

Bellefaire JCB support a wide range of adoption types:

• Waiting Child
• Identified Infant
• Self-directed Infant
• International

We welcome single adopters, married couples, and LGBTQ+ families. We do not discriminate based on age, race, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation. Prospective families receive guidance through paperwork, virtual trainings, interviews, family profile creation, and child placement.

For Expectant Parents

Expectant parents are partnered with a Birth Parent Counselor to explore all options and receive compassionate, judgment-free support. Services include:

• Options counseling to explore all choices for the child’s future
• Non-judgmental counseling and emotional support
• Financial assistance as regulated by the State of Ohio
• Referrals to community resources
• Ongoing support navigating open adoption relationships

All services for expectant parents are provided at no cost.

Bellefaire Adoption Program Staff:

Susan Darden Kautz, MA, LPC
Adoption Director
kautzs@bellefairejcb.org
216-320-8563

Alexa Lipp, LISW
Licensing Specialist/Assessor/Birth Parent Counselor
lippa@bellefairejcb.org

Shelia Crowe
crowes@bellefairejcb.org
Assessor
Cincinnati and surrounding areas

Kristen McLaughlin, LSW
mclaughlin@bellefairejcb.org
Assessor/Birth Parent Counselor
Cleveland/Northeast Ohio 

Deborah Downing, LISW
downingd@bellefairejcb.org
Assessor/Birth Parent Counselor
Cleveland/Northeast Ohio

Tina Knaley, LISW
knaleyt@bellefairejcb.org
Assessor/Birth Parent Counselor
Dayton and surrounding areas

Taranna Francisco
franciscot@bellefairejcb.org
Assessor
Akron/Canton and surrounding areas

Timothy Davidson
davidsont@bellefairejcb.org
Assessor
Akron/Canton and surrounding areas

Andrea Connell, LISW-S
Connella1@bellefairejcb.org
Assessor
Columbus and surrounding areas