Foster care is a protective service to children and their families when families can no longer care for their children. There are many reasons and circumstances that make it difficult for families to meet the needs of their children, including poverty, substance abuse, mental illness, homelessness, loss of a job or lack of support from extended family and community, alleged neglect, or abuse.
In foster care, the children are placed with foster parents who can meet their need for a home environment. The children are in the legal care of the state but, like every child, they need a family to care for them.
Children range in age from infants to teenagers and typically remain in foster care for at least a few months. They come from many different ethnic backgrounds. The greatest need is for foster homes for sibling groups and children from minority groups.
Frankly, the statistics surrounding foster kids are not promising. You can read about the varying struggles foster kids face including post-traumatic stress, high rates of homelessness, poor academic prospects, attachment disorders, and more. So many kids—kids who have been through too much in their young lives—need homes like yours. Not perfect homes. Not even close. Just a home filled with open doors, open arms, open hearts.
For the thousands of children ready for adoptive families in the nation’s foster care system, you represent hope. You are their chance at overcoming trauma. You are their chance at forming a healthy attachment. You are their chance to just get to be a kid, no longer having to worry about fending for themselves. You are their chance at attention, care, love, stability, family. You are their chance.
