Contact Us:
5320 Palmer Lane Suite 1AWilliamsburg, VA 23188
Phone: (757) 259-5340
Fax: (757) 220-0640
Housing & Community
Development:
Host Homes Shelter Care Program:
Hours of Operation
8:00 - 5:00 p.m.Monday-Friday
Community Links
- Social Services
- Foster Care Program
- Housing and Community Development
- Housing and Community Development - Homebuyers' Club
- Host Homes Shelter Care Program
Virginia’s fair housing law prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, elderliness, familial status, and handicap. For more information, click here!
Host Homes Shelter Care Program
Volunteer Emergency Families for Children (VEFC) Host Homes Shelter Care Program
Established in 1979, Volunteer Emergency Families for Children (VEFC) is dedicated to helping children and youth have their varied needs met within their own community. VEFC recruits, trains and maintains a statewide network of highly motivated and committed volunteer families who provide quality short-term shelter care and effective mentoring services to children and youth of Virginia. James City County Social Services works in partnership with VEFC.
Since 1979, volunteer host families throughout Virginia have opened their hearts and homes to at-risk, abused, neglected and runaway children as part of VEFC's nationally acclaimed shelter care program. VEFC families become very special people to the children and youth who stay with them because they provide a safe, caring, family centered environment during a time of crisis and upheaval in the child's life or through preventive respites or enrichment care.
A VEFC family may be a couple, parents with or without children living at home, a retired couple or individual. All volunteers receive special pre-service training, on-going in-service training, and are approved using Virginia foster care standards. VEFC families volunteer to extend the hospitality of their own home to a child or youth for a period of 1 to 21 days, and can specify the age ranges of the children they want to serve. Many families who are only available on weekends can provide periodic respite care for children and youth or serve as effective mentors and as positive role models.
VEFC families serve on a completely voluntary basis and receive no financial reimbursement for the shelter they provide. They do, however, receive a great deal of satisfaction knowing they have reached out to a child during a difficult time in his or her life, or have been effective in prevention and enrichment activities for the child.
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