Category: Parenting Kids in Care

Online Resources for Resource Parents

National Foster Parent Association Supports foster parents in achieving safety, permanence, and well-being for the children and youth in their care. https://nfpaonline.org/ Resources for Foster or Adoptive Families Center for Parent Information and Resources. Information and resources for foster or adoptive parents on raising or caring for a child with disabilities. https://www.parentcenterhub.org/fosteradoptive/ Support for Foster Parents AdoptUSKids. Describes the basic

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Book Review
The Story of Foster Care, Volume One

by Jeanne Preisler • I initially purchased the book The Story of Foster Care Volume One by Empty Frames Initiative because of its North Carolina connection. Three of the authors were involved with the North Carolina Child Welfare Family Advisory Council and I wanted to honor them by purchasing their work. Little did I know when the book arrived a

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What to say when children and youth reunify

Agencies often encourage resource parents to use their natural supports and resources while providing care to children in foster care. And rightly so! Having a strong support system helps you weather the surprises and occasional storms that inevitably come their way. Yet when children must leave your home because permanency has been achieved, the people you rely on and are

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Connections matter during the transition to adulthood

by Amy Huntsman • I have seen too many young people leave foster care without a trusted adult to help guide them. Sometimes they’ve spent years in group homes with no consistent caregiver. For some, the court and child welfare system has not allowed them to have an ongoing relationship with their family. For others, their trauma hinders them from

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Explaining the concept of permanence to children in foster care

by Dina Gerber, MS, LCSW and Kelly Sullivan, PhD • Providing children with permanency is always part of the case plan from a DSS and legal point of view when children enter the child welfare system. However, from the child’s point of view, the term permanence can be abstract and hard to understand. Even understanding why they are in care

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Shared Parenting Strategies to Support Permanence

Placement When children enter your home, everyone and everything is strange to them. They are wondering what they did wrong to make them leave their parents. They are afraid and confused. In this situation, possible child behaviors can include crying, screaming, shaking, running away, cursing, defiance, silence, bed-wetting, and fear (e.g., of the dark, the bathroom, people in the home).

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Supporting cultural permanence 

by Tonia Deese • As a resource parent, you have an important role in supporting all areas of permanence for children and youth in care. Permanency is not just about long-term living arrangements and who has legal responsibility for the child. In this article, I will focus on cultural permanence, or maintaining a child’s connection to their family, traditions, race,

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Placement stability: What resource parents can do

Moves for children and youth in foster care can be traumatic. They can also undermine permanency efforts. Changing placements can increase the risk a young person will develop behavioral challenges that make it harder to achieve reunification, adoption, or another permanency outcome (Casey Family Programs, 2018). The opposite is also true. A stable placement that meets their needs offers children

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FOSTERINGNC.ORG
A Learning Site for NC's Resource Parents

The NC Division of Social Services is proud to offer fosteringNC.org, a learning site for our state’s resource parents. This site features online courses, webinar recordings, videos and podcasts, and answers to frequently asked questions. Free courses include: Human Trafficking 101 for Resource Parents. This 90-minute course explains what human trafficking is, how to recognize it, and how North Carolina

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