Through Intercept®, a program of Youth Villages, ACH helps reunite children in foster care with their families. Our staff is committed to making that happen.
Before he was even a teenager, life had already presented this young boy more challenges than most children face in a lifetime.
At just 11 years old, he and his siblings were removed from their mother’s care because of neglect and substance use concerns. With their father incarcerated at the time, the siblings were separated and placed with paternal relatives. For the young boy, that meant moving in with his grandparents.
The trauma of separation, instability, and loss weighed heavily on him. He struggled to control his temper, experienced severe anxiety, and had thoughts of suicide. His grandparents loved him deeply, but they were overwhelmed by the intensity of his emotional and behavioral needs.
Over the next several years, the family moved through crisis after crisis. He entered multiple residential treatment facilities, ran away more than once in an effort to escape the pain he carried, and was hospitalized twice after attempting to take his own life.
All of this occurred before he reached his teenage years.
A Family in Survival Mode
At the same time, his grandparents were carrying heavy burdens of their own. His grandfather became seriously ill and needed more care and support. His grandmother was trying to care for her husband, support her grandson through ongoing mental health crises, and cope with the incarceration of her own son, the boy’s father.
When his father was released from incarceration and began working to rebuild their relationship, healing remained difficult. Years of disappointment and uncertainty made it hard for the family to trust that lasting change was possible. Although services had been offered before, the family was hesitant to engage. Survival had become the priority.
Intercept® Steps In
Then Intercept entered the picture with a different kind of support—one centered not only on the youth, but on the entire family system surrounding him. When ACH Intercept Specialist Kyana Branch first met with the family, she made it clear that services would focus on the entire family system, with special attention on strengthening the relationship between the now 15-year-old youth and his father. The family committed to meeting three times each week for intensive, in-home services.
Together, they set goals to improve communication, reduce conflict in the home, build healthy coping skills for stress and anxiety, increase emotional regulation, reduce unsafe behaviors, strengthen emotional support among family members, and create long-term stability.
What happened next was something the family had not experienced in a very long time: someone took the time to genuinely ask how they were doing.
During the very first visit, Kyana sat with each family member and asked simple but powerful questions: “How are you doing today?” and “Are you okay?”
Keyana Branch Strengthens Relationships
For perhaps the first time in years, every member of the family felt heard. The youth openly shared his experiences with anxiety, trauma, emotional instability, and the fears he carried every day. His father demonstrated a willingness to learn and accept guidance on how to better respond to his son’s mental health and behavioral needs.
Kyana met with the family three times each week, helping them strengthen communication, reduce conflict, build coping skills, and create a safer, more stable home environment. Just as importantly, she took time to listen. In those early visits, each family member had space to share what they were carrying and what they needed.
Over time, relationships once strained by fear and mistrust began to strengthen. The youth’s father learned new ways to respond to his son’s mental health and behavioral needs, while the grandparents received support as they encouraged both their grandson and their son.
Hope Restored
Today, the family is preparing for a successful discharge from Intercept services. Challenges will still arise, but they are no longer facing them alone or without the tools to manage them. They have developed stronger relationships, healthier coping strategies, and a renewed belief that positive change is possible.
Their story is a reminder that healing does not happen overnight. It takes time, commitment, trust, and support. But with the right intervention and a family willing to keep trying, even after years of setbacks, hope can be restored and futures can be rewritten.
As this family prepares for the next chapter, they do so with something they once thought they had lost: confidence in their ability to move forward together.
Learn more about the benefits of the Intercept program
Through Intercept ®, a program of Youth Villages, ACH helps reunite children in foster care through Our Community Our Kids with their families. ACH guides families through reunification with intensive support, new parenting and communication skills, and evidence- and strengths-based mental health intervention services. Intercept has helped tens of thousands of youths and families in 20 states since 2006.
The Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse rates Intercept as
“Well-Supported.”
“I have been to a lot of placements and met a lot of staff in my life but Kyana from Intercept coming into my home changed the way I view some things in life. She helped me whenever I needed it, always answered my phone calls and text messages, and knew exactly what to say. Because of that, I now want to help people, and my plan is to go to college to be a counselor.”
– Son
“Kyana has given me hope that me and my son can be open with each other with any problems and feelings that we have. The Intercept program has opened up my mind to accept help and has given my family the opportunity to move forward with all the skills that Kyana has taught us. We are very grateful for her time and how much she believed in us”
– Dad
