About Alternate Family Care

Alternate Family Care (AFC) was established in 1985 in response to a request from the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS), presently known as the Department of Children and Families. HRS wanted AFC to develop regional model community-based residential treatment programs to de-institutionalize special needs children who were severely emotionally disturbed and primarily served in the State Hospital System.

In August of 1985, Dr. Ronald Simon, Founder and Dr. David Ferguson, President of Alternate Family Care opened our community-based residential treatment center for severely emotionally disturbed children in Hollywood, Florida and a specialized therapeutic foster care (STFC) program in Jupiter, Florida.

The Hollywood Residential Facility, Florida Palms Academy, presently has a capacity for 20 children and remains a secure setting with 24 hour staff, and intensive therapeutic and psychiatric services. The children, who range from ages 6 to 14, attend school on site under contract with the Broward County School Board.

Since 1985, Alternate Family Care has sought to uphold our mission to provide services for severely emotionally disturbed children in community-based settings. Besides our original sites in Hollywood and Jupiter, we now operate additional programs in Ft. Pierce, Sunrise and Miami, Florida.

These additional sites were modeled after the Jupiter STFC program which is structured differently from the Hollywood Residential Program. This model of care utilizes specially trained treatment foster parents or staff to provide a therapeutic environment in their own home, or in a corporately operated group home. Psychiatric and therapeutic services are provided along with 24 hour on call support staff.

Alternate Family Care operates two residential group homes, Broward’s Alpha and Omega Homes, which offer an array of clinical services. All homes have awake 24 hour staff.

Our Corporate Office and the Broward Program Office are located in Sunrise, Florida. Additional Program Offices are located in  Ft .Pierce, Jupiter, Miami and Hollywood, Florida.