What is kinship care?

Kinship care, or family caring for family, is a natural, out-of-home placement option for children that successfully meets their need for safety, permanency and well-being. 

Impact

Better Outcomes for Children

Children in care have already experienced the trauma of being removed from their homes and families. Placing them with strangers only compounds that trauma. Placing them in the homes of relatives or fictive kin reduces the chance for further trauma, while at the same time maintains their connection to their communities and cultures.

Model

A Value for Family

As the only agency in the country that exclusively delivers services to the entire kinship triad (child, caregiver and birth family), our approach is pure kinship. We provide strengths-based, trauma-informed, culturally competent kinship care services that support stability and continuity and maintain a child's cultural identity and contact with their birth family.

Values

What Is Important to Us?

As a nationally recognized leader in kinship care services, A Second Chance, Inc., is dedicated to upholding the highest professional standards. In the service of children, we respect the families and communities we serve, as well as our own staff. This has been a priority since our inception.

How We Have Helped


ASCI has served approximately 31,000 children, 10,000 kinship caregivers and 30,000 birth parents since its founding.

Reunification

70% of our children reach reunification within the first year of service.

70%

Education

98% of our youth graduate high school, compared to the national average of 50%.

98%

Adoption

78% of our children have closed to adoption.

78%
Fathers
Community Changemaker Spotlight: 100 Black Men of Western Pennsylvania

At A Second Chance, Inc. (ASCI), we honor organizations that are reshaping communities through vision, commitment, and lived experience. 100 Black Men of Western Pennsylvania is one such changemaker that…

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Uncategorized
Fatherhood Is Showing Up: PapPap’s Kinship Care Journey

Each month, A Second Chance, Inc. (ASCI) amplifies the voices of our kinship families. As an agency committed to establishing safe, secure, and nurturing environments for children entrusted to relatives…

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Uncategorized
A Seat at the Table: Fathers in Family Preservation

At A Second Chance, Inc. (ASCI), we know that strong families are built through connection, support, and a commitment to ensuring children remain surrounded by the people who love them…

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ASCI Youth
Be You, Be Proud: Building Confidence From the Inside Out

Confidence begins with recognizing the value you already have. For young people in kinship care, foster care, or other caregiving arrangements, life may bring unique experiences and challenges, but those…

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