Foster parents are the primary intervention in the lives of abused and neglected children. In order for children placed into foster care to receive the safety and stability they need to heal and thrive, available and willing high-quality families are needed.
In California, finding enough caregivers for the state’s foster children is a key plank of the state’s current child welfare initiative, the Continuum of Care Reform (CCR). That reform effort is driven by a need to place more of these children in the homes of caregivers, instead of institutional placements like group homes.
Recruitment of foster parents — now known as resource families in California — is relatively easy to measure. We can see the number of new families who seek more information about becoming a caregiver, take training classes and get approved as a resource family. We can also measure the number of relatives that are found through intensive family finding efforts. Many innovative recruitment efforts targeting specific communities and challenging foster care stereotypes have proven successful.
[For more on this story by Jenn Rexroad, go to https://chronicleofsocialchang...iting-new-ones/32849]
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