Recently, the North Carolina Division of Health and Human Services unveiled a new resource parent recruitment campaign aimed at identifying and educating high quality foster, adoptive and kinship caregivers throughout North Carolina. This new initiative is simply and appropriately called “You Can Be Their Yes.”
As youth who have experienced trauma continue to come into care with complex needs, it is important that North Carolina continues to seek out, identify, train, and support dedicated resource parents. To this end, part of this new recruitment campaign is a webpage located at https://www.ncdhhs.gov/fostering. This new webpage has several resources, a list of private licensing agencies including their catchment areas, information about how to become licensed, an orientation for new resource parents, and more. All of this information has also been translated to Spanish and is easy to access.
It is often said that experienced resource parents are one of the most effective tools for recruiting new resource parents. After all, seasoned resource parents can give an honest assessment of what the realities of caring for youth are on a daily basis.
They can share the ups and downs, resources, and the supports that are effective and meaningful.
Due to the nature of foster care, adoption, and kinship care, there will likely continue to be a need for new resource parents willing to be someone’s “yes.” If you’re a current resource parent, think about who you may know who can answer the call and step up for a child in need of support, guidance, and nurturing. If you’re considering becoming a resource parent, check out the new webpage to learn more. You don’t need to have all the answers to be a great resource parent. As long as you can provide stability and support, you can give the one answer these children and youth need to hear: yes.
