Seneca Central Coast

Strengthening Families and Communities

Children thrive when rooted in safe, loving homes. Every child needs and deserves the meaningful, lifelong connections of a permanent, loving family—connections referred to by child welfare professionals as permanency. Kinship Center, A member of Seneca Family of Agencies, provides an array of permanency-focused programs and services to help ensure that every child has a safe and loving family to support and nurture them through childhood and into adulthood.

Since 1984, Kinship Center has helped build and strengthen families for thousands of children through vital community services including foster care adoption, relative caregiver support, children’s mental health and wraparound services, legal guardianship assistance, and parent and professional education. Kinship Center is headquartered in Salinas, California and provides services throughout the Central Coast.

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Foster Care and Adoption

Foster Care
Kinship Center’s foster care program includes short- or long-term parenting for children with a variety of special circumstances. We welcome new adults who are interested in learning more about becoming a foster parent. Some parents enter the process with the intention of adopting their foster children, while others prefer to remain a transitional placement.

Adoption
Kinship Center professional staff are adoption and permanency competent and have many decades of experience preparing families for their adoption journey. We match children with the potential adoptive parents who can best meet their needs, and we support the newly formed family through adoption finalization and beyond. The dedication of Kinship Center staff is responsible for the very high placement success rate.

For more information and to talk to one of our recruiters, fill out our Foster Care and Adoption Interest Form. You can also call (831) 455-4740 or email barbara_may@senecacenter.org.

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foster parent application
Relative Caregiver Services

Kinship Center’s Family Ties program supports successful family functioning when relatives have taken on the temporary or permanent care of kin children whose birth parents are not able to care for them. Often times, relative caregivers require a high level of intervention, community resources, support, and education to keep these children within the family and avoid foster care or the juvenile justice system. Legal guardianship assistance is provided when needed to insure permanency. The goal of this program is to support a stable family environment where children and teens can heal and thrive.

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Children's Mental Health

Kinship Center offers a wide range of strengths-based and outcomes oriented mental health services that annually reach hundreds children and youth throughout the Central Coast. Our two clinics located in Salinas and King City are staffed by experienced therapists offering individual, family and group counseling. Our programs build upon and enhance the strengths of children and families, accelerating their progress toward attaining stability, self-sufficiency, and long term success. Services are provided in English and Spanish.

D'Arrigo Children’s Mental Health Clinic:
124 River Road, Salinas, CA 93908 • (831) 455-4770

King City Child and Family Development Center:
1180 Broadway Street, King City, CA 93930 • (831) 386-3940

Mobile Crisis Response Team
If you or a youth you know is actively experiencing a mental health crisis, call (831) 687-4379 for immediate assistance. A team of professionals will assist you over the phone and in person right away. Anyone in Monterey County between the ages of 0-21 can use this service.

In partnership with Monterey County Behavioral Health, Kinship Center's Mobile Crisis Response Team is an on-call unit of mental health professionals providing crisis intervention to youth experiencing an immediate crisis. The team responds to calls in schools, homes, youth centers, and other community locations to respond to any youth actively experiencing a crisis. The program's goal is to reduce unnecessary psychiatric hospitalizations, decrease unnecessary police involvement, keep children with their biological families, and decrease placement changes for children not living with their biological parents.

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Wraparound

Kinship Center offers intensive “Wraparound” services to children and youth at risk of placement in a high-level group home, and to their families. The Wraparound programs are strength-based, family-driven, flexible and creative, with the goal of helping the family develop the skills and supports to prevent or reduce the possibility of residential placement of their child.

A family-based team addresses the needs of the entire family, not just the at-risk child. This family team consists of family members, other community members who have an important role in the family, and Kinship Center’s facilitators or care coordinators, parent partners, and family assistants or youth partners.

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Seneca's San Luis Obispo County Programs

Seneca offers programs in San Luis Obispo County including foster care and adoption, children's mental health, and relative caregiver services.

Go to Seneca San Luis Obispo County by clicking the button below.

Seneca SLO County
Training

The issues surrounding adoption, foster care, and relative care are complex and lifelong for families. Seneca provides a variety of trainings at our Kinship Center offices, giving parents and professionals the tools they need for success.

To register for a training, class, or support group, please visit our training calendar.

Training Calendar

Families that were separated at the border have endured unfathomable trauma, the ramifications of which may be lifelong. In this moment, more than ever, we need your support. Seneca's Todo Por Mi Familia initiative connects thousands of families impacted by the Zero Tolerance Policy with free mental health services. Donate today to provide emergency relief to these families who need assistance to get back on their feet.

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