Love makes a family.
And in seasons where families need support, it’s love that leads to lending a hand.
Whether you’re new to the world or if you’ve been helping for decades, welcome to Foster Care Aware.
May is National Foster Care Awareness Month!
In celebration, we created brand new resources for our community to get involved and make a meaningful impact in a way that works for you.
Choose the path that’s best for you below.
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I’m a community member and want to learn how I can help
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I’d like more information about becoming a foster parent
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I’m a social worker or professional and want to learn more
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I’m a foster parent and I’m open to resources to make things a bit easier
The goal of Foster Care Aware is three-fold.
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Awareness. To raise awareness about foster care and the need for emotionally intelligent foster parents
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Encourage. To encourage community members to support the kid’s in their community by supporting friends who want to foster, becoming volunteers, donating, advocating, or becoming foster parents themselves.
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Connect. To connect prospective foster folks with local agencies and training programs, volunteers with organizations, and people who care about the kids in our cities who want to be an active part of the solution with others who do too.
Make a difference today!
1 in 3 families consider adoption but only 2% actually adopt.
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What would happen if more people knew about the need for quality families for children in the foster care system?
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How would these numbers shift if more people understood the preschool to prison pipeline and how they can could help stop it?
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How much easier would it be for families to say yes if their friends and family had the tools to support them?
This is the data we’re tracking with Foster Care Aware.
(Source: Jahng, Kenny. “Adoption Awareness: 10 Facts about Adoption That Will Surprise You.” The Adoption Journey. June 17, 2012.)
Foster Care Aware is more than a messaging movement, it’s an experiment.
Our hypothesis is that if more people knew about the need in our communities, understood the problem, and were clear on the different ways they could get involved, they would.
We believe that people care, but, right now, they’re just not aware.
Help us spread the word (don’t worry- we’ve written all the words for you!) by sharing with your community through email and social media to help us raise friends + funds.
Grab your guide!
The goal of Foster Care is always Reunification first.
Family reunification is the process of returning a child to his or her family of origin following a placement in foster care. In Virginia, reunification is the primary goal for children in foster care. Research finds that children do best when raised in their own families, whenever possible. In order to successfully achieve reunification, challenges associated with the birth parents must be thoroughly addressed as the child’s safety and well-being are paramount. This requires the support of the child welfare professionals and the child’s foster parents.
Strong partnerships between birth parents, foster parents, local departments of social services, courts and other community partners are critical to achieving successful reunification and stability for children. Foster parents play a critical role in helping to involve birth families in case planning and decision-making, providing mentoring support of birth parents, and facilitating visits between children and their biological families.
Approximately one-third of children exiting foster care each year return to their parents’ custody. Other outcomes include adoption, the transfer of custody to a relative, and emancipation (or aging out of foster care with no identified family).
(Source: Virginia Dept of Social Services)
Foster Care Aware is brought to you by Tidewater Friends of Foster Care
In partnership with:
“I could never do that.”
While we fully honor that everyone has a different capacity and interest in helping we ask that you please stop saying this.
Why? Because no child asked for the circumstance that led them into foster care. Yet, they’re doing their best anyway.
Humans are incredible. When times are tough, and when people we love need our help, we figure it out.
These humans are worth doing hard things for.
Which way to help is up to you.
If you take one thing away from FCA, let it be this:
You can help.
Bring it up. Talk to friends. Discuss possible solutions. Brainstorm how to give back to the social workers in your community. Fundraise together. Use your voice.
Your support matters.
