Child and Family Services
Serving children, youth, and families
At Ariel, we believe every child deserves the chance to heal, grow, and flourish—and every family walking alongside them deserves a team that shows up. For more than three decades, starting with foster care, we’ve built new programs as new needs became clear: consistent time with birth parents, permanent homes through adoption, a place to stabilize when a family setting isn’t enough, a steady adult outside the parenting role, and therapy to help children process what they’ve been through.
Our team coordinates closely across every program. We offer foster care for children who can’t safely stay with their birth families, with support calibrated to what each foster family needs and family time woven in to keep birth families connected. When a child needs more structure than a family setting can provide, Ariel sponsors and supervises group centers across Colorado. Adoption creates permanency for children who can’t return home, whether through the public system or private adoption. Mentoring pairs children and youth with a consistent adult outside the parenting role. And our child and family therapy team helps children and families process trauma and build the skills to move forward.
Licensed child placement agency with qualified professionals
Technically, we are a licensed private child placement agency, certified by the State of Colorado to provide foster care, adoption, and clinical therapy services. That license also covers our role sponsoring and supervising group centers, and our participation in the CHRP (Children’s Habilitation Residential Program) waiver, which funds our mentoring program alongside services for children and youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Our therapists are licensed professionals with specialized training in trauma-focused care. About a third of our therapy team has worked directly in the child welfare system, which means less time spent on context and more time spent on the work that helps.
While all the technical details are important, what really defines us is our heart. We’re a team of people who believe a child’s behavior tells you what they’ve been through, not what’s wrong with them. We see foster parents as partners still learning and growing, not just caregivers. We believe birth families working toward reunification deserve support, not judgment. And it’s why our therapists, case managers, and family time workers work out of the same offices—so a child’s team is talking in real time, not catching up after the fact.
Child and Family Services at Ariel
Every child and family we serve* is different—some need one program, others benefit from several working together at once. Whatever the path, our team coordinates closely so families are supported by people who already know their story.
*While services may look a little different depending on where you live, our team is committed to helping every child and family access what they need. Please contact your nearest location to discuss options.
Foster Care
Foster care provides temporary, safe homes for children and youth who can’t remain with their birth families due to abuse, neglect, or a family crisis. Support is calibrated to what each foster family needs, from a monthly check-in to weekly contact, with the clinical team on call day and night. Family time—supervised visits held in home-like rooms at Ariel’s offices—keeps birth families connected along the way. Reunification is the first goal whenever it’s safe, and Ariel’s team stays alongside families for however long that takes.
Group Centers
Some children and youth need more structure than a family-based foster home can provide. Ariel sponsors and supervises group centers across Colorado, serving young people with higher-level behavioral, mental health, or developmental needs. The goal is always a step toward a lower level of care—a foster home, reunification, or adoption—and Ariel works to keep children close to home rather than placed out of state.
Adoption
Adoption creates permanency for children who can’t safely return to their birth families. Ariel supports two paths: private adoption, where a birth parent chooses an adoptive family, and public adoption, often called foster-to-adopt, for children in foster care who need a permanent family. Respect for both adoptive and birth parents runs through the entire process, and support continues well past placement day.
Youth Mentoring / CSS
Some children haven’t had many steady relationships with adults in their lives. Ariel’s Youth Mentoring program—known as Community Support Services, or CSS, in county and billing contexts—pairs them with a trained mentor who shows up consistently and builds the relationship first.
Child and Family Therapy
Children who’ve experienced trauma, loss, or disruption carry those experiences with them, sometimes in ways they can’t yet put into words. Ariel’s therapy team—many with direct experience in the child welfare system—works with children and youth of all ages using evidence-based approaches, from play therapy to EMDR. Sessions are held in person in Grand Junction, and Ariel helps connect families elsewhere with trusted community providers.
>> Unless otherwise noted, all images and names represent real people but actual images and names have not been used for privacy reasons. <<
