About

Pathways became a reality on May 8, 1992, when Pathways Youth Home received a license to operate as an independent therapeutic foster family home for six boys in Leakey, Texas. 

Over the next 15 years, Pathways services expanded across the state of Texas with in-home services, foster care, adoption, residential care, and behavioral health services. 

Today, Pathways has offices in Austin, Abilene, Dallas, Houston, Kerrville, Mountain Home, and San Antonio. Now, and in the future, Pathways’ mission is to transform lives, families, and communities.

Who We Are

Established in 1992, Pathways Youth and Family Services’ mission of transforming lives, families, and communities has been successful, by providing foster care and adoption services to more than 11,000 children and permanently placing an additional 4,000 more with a forever family.

Pathways fulfills its vision of thriving children, resilient families, and strong communities through a holistic delivery of well-developed and appropriate services. With invaluable experience and a firm understanding of the proven practices and regulatory requirements that ground an organization in the communities it serves, Pathways’ values are rooted in “compassion, collaboration, excellence, integrity, respect, diversity, innovation, empowerment, acceptance, and teamwork.”

Accreditation through the Council on Accreditation further validates Pathways’ commitment to providing quality services to its clients, demonstrates its compliance with regulations, laws, and judicial orders, and showcases its ability to execute the best practices necessary to show measurable results.

What We Do

Foster Care: Knowing firsthand the trauma associated when a child is uprooted from their home, and the trauma often associated with the child’s home environment, Pathways understands that providing a safe and stable home is critical to a child’s sense of security and well-being. The Pathways’ Foster Care Family Program serves children ages 0-17 who are placed in the conservatorship of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) by a court. Pathways offers several types of foster care programs, including traditional foster care, treatment foster care (formerly known as therapeutic foster care), and primary medical needs. Pathways also provides services to families in kinship care, helping them to become a licensed kinship home.

Adoption: Our adoption services include extensive training, certifications, and the services of a Home Developer to help navigate the licensing, training, and preparation process. Pathways understands that parents create the foundation by which children can thrive, through a safe, nurturing, stable environment, and it is this premise that motivates Pathways’ adoption staff to find permanent homes for each child.

Residential Care: Residential care is a type of out-of-home placement in which trained staff work with children and youth whose specific needs are best addressed in a highly structured environment. These services offer a higher level of structure and supervision than that provided in a foster or kinship home. Pathways has two specialized residential programs: Habilitative Homes (Hab Homes) and 3H Youth Ranch (3H). Licensed for 22 residents, Hab Homes is a residential treatment program in San Antonio, Texas, serving children with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities. Both Hab Homes and 3H programs support children with treatment teams of psychiatrists, social workers, licensed professional counselors, qualified mental health professionals, and licensed childcare administrators.

Behavioral Health: Pathways’ Mosaic Behavioral Health Services (Mosaic) has been providing trauma-informed mental health and community-based services to Texas since 1998. Mosaic provides high-quality individual therapy, family therapy, targeted case management and rehabilitative services, and psychiatric care to children and families. Mosaic uses evidence-based treatment modalities such as cognitive behavioral therapy, cognitive processing therapy and parent-child interaction therapy as well as trauma-informed care, trust-based relational intervention, advocacy, and peer support. Enhancing a child’s ability to overcome adversity, Mosaic’s behavioral health services are key to child and family success.

Why We Exist

We serve youth ages 0-17 who have been placed in the care of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS). Typically, children who have been removed from their home due to abuse and/or neglect are experiencing a variety of social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties. They are children who need professional support that includes quality, trauma-informed behavioral health services and can benefit from living in a home outside their immediate family.

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