WINTER PARK, Fla. — After leaders of the nonprofit Embrace Families ended their contract with Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) to manage foster care throughout Central Florida due to financial restraints, other local child welfare agencies are wondering what comes next.

The DCF responded to Embrace Families’ decision by saying the agency had suffered from “a lack of management oversight.”

Jerry Pitzer and his wife have been foster parents in the Orlando area for nearly 30 years. Pitzer is also President of Orange/Seminole Foster Children’s Association and a partner with Foster Adoptive Caregiver Team. They partner with local child welfare agencies, like Embrace Families, in hopes to support, educate and advocate for foster and adoptive families in the area. It’s something they have a passion for.

“Come through that door. You are my child. I will protect you as if you are my child. I will do for you as if you are my child. The only person to take you out of here is DCF by court order,” said Pitzer.

They ended up adopting 10 of their foster kids through the years. But when he heard Embrace Families, the lead child welfare agency in Central Florida, is no longer renewing their contract with DCF, he was personally affected by the news.

“They are right now feeling that hard pain of all of their advocacy, their support, all of that stuff is gone. It’s different than… there are other entities out there that support foster parents, but not in the way we did,” said Pitzer.

Pitzer said in his nearly 30 years of being a foster parent, Embrace Families, was by far the best. The reason? Pitzer said the agency truly cares about the work they do.

“The part that scares me is somebody is going to bid on this new contract. Somebody is going to get it. Somebody is going to get paid more, but up until now I have never seen a true leadership community like Embrace Families that truly cared. Right now they can’t afford to care, so that’s why they are getting out. If we can’t care, we’re getting out,” said Pitzer.

Pitzer hopes for the sake of his Central Florida community, the transition between Embrace Families and the new lead child welfare agency goes smoothly. But like Embrace Families, he believes DCF didn’t give the proper support to the agency.

Spectrum News reached out to DCF. This is what they sent back.

“The Department respects Embrace CBC’s decision to no longer provide child welfare services in Seminole, Orange, and Osceola counties. For more than a year, the Department has expressed concerns to Embrace about its financial and operational performance. These concerns include:

•  A repeated pattern of placing children in unlicensed settings, despite interventions and technical assistance provided by the Department.
• A lack of management oversight and support from Embrace to their contracted case management organizations.
• Mismanagement of financial resources requiring substantial staff and contract cuts in order to come into budgetary compliance.

To date, we have seen little progress in resolving these issues. Given no substantial improvement has been made, we appreciate Embrace CBC stepping aside so another organization that is more capable can step in and provide the level of service the children in these counties deserve.

The Department is experienced in transitioning community-based care services, having done so successfully in circuits 6 and 13 through emergency/expedited procurements and circuit 1 through the normal procurement process. In all these instances, the new organizations are performing better, and communities are now receiving a higher level of services.

We value our community partners and look forward to working with stakeholders in Orange, Osceola, and Seminole counties on selecting a new lead agency and ensuring stability through the transition process.”