Foster parenting can be a rewarding experience for both you and the child placed with you. Providing foster care is a practice that has been around since biblical times, but in the early 1900's fostering became a part of a professional team working to find permanency for dependent children.
Social services soon became involved and began working to place children in appropriate homes for stability. Any information concerning the child is collected and kept on file. This way the individual needs of the child are considered when a placement for them occurs.
Qualifications Required to be a Foster Parent
In order to be considered as a foster parent, you must first complete an application for a family home license. This also involves a criminal back ground check along with finger printing for each adult member of the household.
You must be 21 years of age and you must also show family stability. This is estabilished through a home study conducted by your local social services department. The home study consists of a home inspection, personal interviews, and character references.
You are also required to take and pass pre-service training. Once these steps are completed, a family home license can be issued.
What is Pre-Service Training?
Most states require a number of hours of training to become licensed. The hours required for training varies from state to state and can be anywhere from 6 to 30 hours. The courses usually consisit of basic foster care, and safety. Check with your local social service departments for the requirements in your state.
Why Choose Foster Parenting?
Are you loving and compassionate? Many of the children placed in foster care are victims of physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. They will require special attention and care.
Some children are from families unable to care for them for a variety of reasons, drug abuse, poor, neglect, etc. They may have separation issues and also require special attention and care.
No matter what the situation, all the children placed in foster care need a family that is willing to help them work through their individual issues and accept them as human beings.
Being a foster parent can be extremely rewarding. Children that are in foster homes and recieve the proper care required can grow to be loving caring adults. You will reep the rewards by seeing these individuals learn to live in a family situation that loves and cherishes them. All children need love and understanding to grow.
Yes, being a foster parent is a 24/7 job that has it's ups and downs, but with the proper support offered by local social service agencies and a loving, caring environment it can be very rewarding.
Check with your local social service agency to find out the requirements in your state and consider giving these children the loving home that they deserve.
If you are looking to adopt and are seeking a less expensive root, you may want to consider this option. child-adoption-matters.com/foster-child-adoption.html We did!
Connie McKenzie is a part-time work at home mom. She has two beautiful adopted girls and a wonderful husband. My site offers foster care and adoption information, as well as lots of useful resources for those wishing to adopt a child. child-adoption-matters.com Child Adoption Matters because as her daughter says, "Child adoption does matter, mommy!
No comments:
Post a Comment