Alabama
Agency: Alabama Department of Human Resources
Commissioner: Tony Petelos
Public Information Number: (334) 242-1850
Administration of Human Services
Assistance and service programs in Alabama, including the mandatory and optional state supplements to the Supplemental Security Income Program (SSI/S), are supervised by the state office of the Department of Human Resources and administered by the 67 County Departments of Human Resources. Most programs are federal-state funded.
Assistance and Services
Assistance programs include Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Child Support Enforcement (CSE), SSI/S, Food Stamps (FS), and aid to refugees. The Individual and Family Grant Program is administered by the Alabama Emergency Management Agency. The Alabama Medicaid Agency is responsible for Medicaid (MAP) and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
Services include adult and child abuse and neglect and child welfare and protective services (APS, CA/N, CPS, CW), foster care/adoption assistance (FC/AA), family preservation and support services (FP/FS), services to adults and families (SA, SF), and the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG). Social services include adoption; day care for adults, children, and for the physically and mentally handicapped; foster care for adults and children; homemaker services for adults and children; preventive and supportive services; protective services for adults and children; transportation services (provided on a limited basis under contract); and residential care services for individuals with exceptional needs and delinquents. Emergency management services (mass care, food, and shelter) are available to victims of natural and man-made disasters.
The department licenses voluntary child-care institutions, group homes, child-placing agencies, and child day-care facilities, and approves foster homes for children and adults and adult day-care facilities.
Related state agencies are responsible for adult corrections (CP); probation and parole (PRO, PAR); youth corrections (YA); the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant (MCHBG); the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); vocational rehabilitation (VR); vocational rehabilitation for the blind (VRB); blind services (BS); services to the aged (APS, OA); unemployment compensation (UC); employment services (ES); the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA); mental retardation programs (MR); the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Block Grant (ADAMHBG); state veterans services (VET); the Community Services and Preventive Health Services Block Grants (CSBG, PHSBG); and the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).
Go to AlaWeb, the state of Alabama’s web site.
Find out more about whom to contact in this state in the 1998/99 Public Human Services Directory.