CONCERN - Professional Services for Children, Youth, and Families

CONCERN - Professional Services for Children, Youth, and Families is a nonprofit human services organization with its administrative home at 1 W Main St in Fleetwood, Berks County, Pennsylvania. The agency works with children, teenagers, and families through a combination of foster care and adoption services, outpatient behavioral health care, and community based programs. Its central office sits in the heart of Fleetwood's main commercial corridor, a short drive from Kutztown, Blandon, Topton, and the northeastern townships of Berks County, and roughly fifteen miles from Reading. The main phone line is +1 610-944-0445.

CONCERN was established in the 1970s and has grown from a regional foster care provider into an organization operating multiple program sites across Pennsylvania, with offices and service teams positioned in different counties so that families can be served closer to where they live. The Fleetwood address functions both as a point of contact for the surrounding community and as the administrative base for the broader agency.

Foster Care and Permanency Services

Foster care is the service category most closely associated with CONCERN, and it covers a wider range of arrangements than many people expect. The agency recruits, trains, certifies, and supports foster families who open their homes to children and youth who cannot safely remain with their parents. Placements vary in length and intensity, from short term emergency and respite care to longer arrangements that continue while a permanency plan is developed.

Prospective resource parents generally go through an application and screening process that includes background clearances, a home study, and pre service training covering trauma informed caregiving, child development, behavior management, and the legal framework of the child welfare system. Once a child is placed, caseworkers remain actively involved, visiting the home, coordinating with county children and youth agencies, arranging services for the child, and supporting the foster parents through the practical and emotional demands of the role. Ongoing training hours are typically required each year to maintain certification.

Related services commonly offered within this area of the agency's work include:

• Kinship care, in which relatives or close family friends are approved and supported as caregivers
• Treatment level and specialized foster care for children with higher behavioral, medical, or emotional needs
• Respite care, giving existing foster families scheduled short term relief
• Adoption services for children whose permanency plan has changed, including support for foster parents who choose to adopt a child already in their home
• Independent living and transition support for older teens preparing to age out of the system

Families interested in fostering are usually encouraged to start with an informational conversation by phone, since eligibility questions about housing, income, marital status, and existing children in the home come up frequently and are often simpler to resolve than people assume. Single adults, renters, and working parents are all commonly able to foster.

Behavioral Health and Counseling

Alongside its child welfare work, CONCERN operates outpatient behavioral health services, and in practice this is how many Berks County residents first encounter the organization. Therapy is provided to children, adolescents, and in many cases adults and whole family units, addressing concerns such as anxiety, depression, trauma and post traumatic stress, grief and loss, attachment difficulties, behavioral problems at home or school, family conflict, and adjustment to major life changes including divorce, placement, or adoption.

Clinical staff typically includes licensed and license eligible therapists, social workers, and counselors, with psychiatric evaluation and medication management available or coordinated where appropriate. Treatment approaches used in agency settings of this kind often include cognitive behavioral therapy, trauma focused models, play based work with younger children, and family systems approaches. Sessions are generally scheduled on a recurring basis, with the frequency set by the treatment plan developed between the clinician and the family.

Because the agency maintains more than one outpatient site in the region, including a location in the Wyomissing area, families sometimes transfer between offices or choose the site most convenient to their home, school, or work schedule without leaving the same provider network. Insurance questions, including Medical Assistance and commercial plans, are usually handled during the intake call, and it is worth asking about current availability and wait times when making first contact.

Community and Family Based Programs

CONCERN also delivers services that take place outside an office setting. Programs in this category are designed to reach young people where daily life actually happens, in homes, schools, and neighborhoods. Depending on county contracts and funding, these can include in home family support and reunification services, school based counseling and prevention work, truancy intervention, juvenile justice related programming, and support for youth on probation or returning to the community. The underlying logic of these programs is consistent: keeping families together where it is safe to do so, and reducing the disruption that out of home placement causes for a child's schooling and relationships.

Location, Access, and Practical Information

The Fleetwood office is located on West Main Street in the borough's downtown. Parking in the immediate area includes on street spaces and lot parking, and the site is reported as having a wheelchair accessible entrance, a wheelchair accessible restroom, and a wheelchair accessible parking lot, which makes it usable for visitors with mobility devices and for families bringing strollers or young children to appointments. Fleetwood is reached from Route 222 by way of Route 662, and the borough is within straightforward driving distance of Reading, Kutztown, Hamburg, and Boyertown.

Visits to the office fall into a few general categories: intake appointments for new clients, scheduled therapy sessions, foster parent orientation and training events, meetings between caseworkers and families, and administrative business. Calling ahead at +1 610-944-0445 is advisable for all of these, since staff are frequently in the field, in schools, or in client homes, and the appropriate program contact varies depending on whether the inquiry concerns fostering, counseling, or a county referred service.

When making a first call, it helps to have a few details ready: the age of the child or children involved, the county of residence, whether a county agency or school has already made a referral, and insurance information if the inquiry concerns therapy. For foster care inquiries, questions about the number of bedrooms in the home, other household members, and availability for training sessions are standard parts of the early conversation.

Who the Agency Serves

The client base spans a wide range, from preschool age children referred for early behavioral concerns to adolescents navigating the juvenile justice system, from parents working toward reunification to adults seeking counseling for themselves. Referrals arrive through county children and youth agencies, juvenile probation departments, schools, pediatricians and primary care providers, and directly from families who contact the office on their own. As a nonprofit, the organization operates largely through county contracts, insurance reimbursement, grants, and charitable support, and it accepts volunteers and donations that assist the children and families in its programs.