A publication dedicated to making foster care and adoption in North Carolina the best they can be
It can be hard for foster parents and staff to balance ensuring that a baby is well cared for without taking over the parenting role and sidelining the young parent. Here, Martha Edwards, the director of the Ackerman Institute’s Center for the Developing Child and Family in New York, explains how foster parents and staff can help young parents gain
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by Donna Foster • Tips to help you engage, motivate, and support birth parents as they learn to parent their children in healthy ways. Foster parents are taught about the things children feel when experiencing loss. We are taught in MAPP about the grief cycle and how to help children through each stage. Yet we are not always taught that
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I visited Darren a lot while he was in foster care and worked hard to get him back. Even though I had two relapses, I went to school full-time and worked part-time. I lived in a shelter some of the time, and I got TANF…. “This story is about Darren, not about us.” After our visits, I always took Darren
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What does shared parenting look and feel like to a child or youth in foster care? To find out, we asked members of SaySo (Strong Able Youth Speaking Out) what the experience was like for them, what they learned, and whether they had suggestions for adults and others involved in shared parenting. As the essays below make it clear, youth
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by Donna Foster • One thing children and youth say about being in foster care is that adults talk about their lives and make plans without communicating with them. I have heard many say, “This is my life and I need to know what is going to happen!” I learned this early in my 17 years of fostering and agree
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This spring, most of us have been thrown for a loop by COVID-19 and the steps our society is taking to reduce its impact. Here in North Carolina, public schools across the state are closed for in-person instruction for the rest of this school year. We have been asked to stay at home and to keep our distance from one
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The theme of this issue of Fostering Perspectives is “foster care as a support for families, not a substitute for parents.” Foster care is intended to be a short-term intervention that strengthens parents’ protective capacities so they can safely care for their children. The goal is almost always for children and youth to return to their families. One of the
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Because the child welfare system is complex, it can be frustrating even for those who work in it. For kinship caregivers, who often find themselves involved in the system with little or no time to prepare, it can be confusing and even intimidating. To help, following is a brief overview of some basic things every kinship caregiver should know about
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by Gina Brown • Be it Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, or whatever your family holiday tradition is, your first year as a kinship care provider may not feel very traditional. Please have trust it can get better. To help, here are a few pointers that apply to almost any holiday scenario you might face as a relative caregiver. Be Honest. Be
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Questions to ask the child welfare worker about taking responsibility for the children: Who has legal custody of the children? What rights and responsibilities does legal custody give? Physical custody? May I receive a copy of the signed voluntary placement agreement? (when applicable) May I be involved in developing the service plan and receive a copy of the plan? Will
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