A Second Chance, Inc. (ASCI) is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and specializes in supporting child welfare-involved kinship families while providing parents with services to help them regain custody of their children. As part of its comprehensive approach, A Second Chance provides kinship care training specially designed to address the dynamics of kinship families; intensive in-home services, emergency assistance, including a clothing bank and flexible funding for other necessary expenses; respite services; and transportation. A Second Chance also assigns different social workers to work with the caregiver and the parent to ensure that immediate service needs, as well as longer-term reunification and permanency goals, are being met.

In 2013, the Pennsylvania General Assembly enacted H.B. 1075, which included a requirement that family finding be conducted for a child when the child is accepted for service and at least annually thereafter. “Accepted for service” is defined as a decision to admit or receive an individual as a client of the county agency or as required by court order. Workers are now expected to be fully invested in finding and maintaining children’s important family connections.

Pennsylvania’s state law that requires family-finding be conducted for a child when a case is first opened (as opposed to when the child is removed from home). The Statewide Adoption Network (SWAN) Legal Services Initiative has placed paralegals in 66 of the state’s 67 counties to conduct diligent searches for family members who may be available as placement resources.