UNDERSTANDING FOSTER

CARE
By: Kassadee Apgood
 INTRODUCTION

• Foster Care is also known as Out-of-Home care.

• Foster Care is a temporary service offered by the States to provide for children who can not live
with their families.
• Foster care’s main purpose is to provide a stable and safe home for children in need.
• This is important because it ensures a secure and stable home for these children, giving them the
opportunity to grow in a caring family environment.
 WHY FOSTER
CARE?
Reasons why children may enter foster care:

- Abuse

- Neglect

- Parental substance abuse

- Family is in crisis

- Any unsafe conditions

- Parents who cannot take care of their children for any

reasons

- Abandonment
 POSITIVE ASPECTS

• Gives the child an opportunity to have a positive influence in their life.

• Participating in being a foster family is a way to serve the community and give care to those
children.
• Help a child recover from trauma.
• Give a child a new perspective on life.
• Helps children get the needs that they are lacking and help to education them.
 CHALLENGES IN FOSTER CARE

• Adjusting to new situation

• Managing interactions with birth family
• These children may have challenging behaviors
• Working towards reunification
• Coping with missing family
• Children struggle to feel like they can build relationships with their foster family
 THE ROLE OF FOSTER FAMILIES

1. Ensuring safety by offering structure, support,

consistency, and comfort.
2. Addressing basic needs by providing food,
shelter, clothing, transportation, and access to
medical, dental, and behavioral care.
3. Offering emotional support.
4. Contributing to the goal of permanency for the
child.
5. Playing a crucial role as a team player in the
care and well-being of the child.
 FOSTER CARE STATISTICS IN UTAH

• Around 2700 children in the foster care system at a time.

• Around 1300 licensed foster families to support these children.
• On average, most children stay in foster care for approximately 12 months.
• 2/3 of foster children ultimately reunite with their birth parent or relatives.
• Ages of foster children range from 0-18 years old.
• Foster families are mainly needed for children 8 and older.
 THE NEED FOR
IMPROVEMENTS:
1. Enhancing efforts to keep families together

2. Online training and support for foster families

3. Streamlining rules, policies, and paperwork process.

4. Reunification reforms

5. Therapy

6. Helping those who age out

7. Promoting kinship care

8. Encouraging effective co-parenting

9. Relief and support for case workers

 SUPPORTING FOSTER CARE

• Open home to foster children

• Be a mentor for a foster child
• Support foster families in your community
• Becoming a “care community” and receiving trauma training
• Learn about “waiting children”
• Donate
 REFERENCES:
•8 most common fostering challenges. 8 most common fostering challenges - Capstone Foster Care. (n.d.).
https://www.capstonefostercare.co.uk/knowledge-centre/8-most-common-fostering-challenges

•Casey , A. E. (2014, February 6). Foster Care: What it is and how it works. The Annie E. Casey Foundation. https://www.aecf.org/blog/what-is-
foster-care

•DeGarmo, Dr. J. (2022, January 26). Foster Care Reform: 15 ways to fix foster care in 2022. Medium. https://drjohndegarmo.medium.com/foster-
care-reform-15-ways-to-fix-foster-care-in-2022-e228aadb35e0

•Foster Care. Child Welfare Information Gateway. (n.d.). https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/outofhome/

•Foster Care. Utah First Lady Abby Cox. (n.d.). https://www.showuputah.org/foster-care

•Role of a foster parent. Family Services of Westchester. (2023, January 18). https://www.fsw.org/therapeutic-foster-care/role-of-a-foster-parent/
#:~:text=Basic%20needs%3A%20Foster%20parents%20provide,help%20the%20child%20feel%20understood.

•Statewide facts: Children in foster care. Utah Foster Care. (n.d.). https://utahfostercare.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/ufc-factsheet-general.pdf

•What are the positives of foster care?. Adoption.org. (n.d.). https://adoption.org/positives-foster-care

•What is foster care and why is it so important?. Foster Care & Become A Foster Parent - Illinois. (2021, February 19).
https://camelotcarecenters.com/2021/03/19/what-is-foster-care-and-why-is-it-so-important/