Rooted Care: Grow

Rooted Care provides education and support for biological, foster, and adoptive parents and caregivers raising a child with IDD. Recognizing that maintaining caregiver stability is essential to maintaining placement stability, the program provides caregivers with practical, compassionate guidance. Support is delivered through three primary channels: individualized mentoring that pairs seasoned caregivers with newer ones, facilitated monthly support groups (offered both in person and virtually) that provide emotional support and address the profound isolation often felt by caregivers of foster youth with IDD, and navigation assistance to help families move between DCFS and Illinois Department of Human Services Division of Developmental Disabilities systems and access resources such as PUNS (the system used to identify individuals with developmental disabilities who may require home and community-based waiver services), waivers, Independent Service Coordination (ISC) processes, and respite care.