Foster care is fundamentally a temporary solution to a crisis situation. The goal of all foster care placement is the child’s eventual safe return home. Until that happens, child welfare agencies like Saint Francis Ministries work with the parents to help them address the issues that led to their child’s removal and placement into foster care.
Until that can occur, Saint Francis works with the court and the parents to resolve unsafe issues, stabilize the family, and connect parents with the resources they need to better provide for the care of their children. Most kids remain in foster care 1-2 years, and just under half of children in foster care return home (Source: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services).
In the event that a child can not safely return home, agencies try to find a kinship placement for the child. Kinship care involves placement with relatives or non-related kin. So, if a child cannot live with their parents, they can at least remain with family.
The best foster parents are those who also work closely with birth parents to provide support so they can bring their kids home. Saint Francis foster parents often continue to work with birth parents even after the child leaves their care, offering encouragement, advice, and moral support.
During National Family Reunification Month, we celebrate those moments when a child returns home and a family is restored to wholeness.
Healthy, strong, and whole families are both the hope and goal, and foster and kinship families play an essential role in making that happen.
Have you ever considered foster parenthood? As a foster or kinship parent, you change lives – not just the child’s, but everyone’s in the family. You even change your own. You just need to make a little room … in your life and at your table.
Is there room at your table … for a child? For a family seeking wholeness?
If so, visit https://saintfrancisministries.org/foster-care/ to get started.
