How to Become a Foster Parent: Being a Foster Parent is perhaps the most difficult and most rewarding of all volunteer positions. It involves hard work twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Not only does it involve parenting children who have suffered trauma and loss, it requires working with a team of professionals that are in charge of meeting of all the children’s needs, such as, Family Resource Center, schools, medical facilities, and all necessary resources for the child (including the birth family).
Individuals interested in becoming a Foster Parent must be 21 years or older; be financially self-supporting; and also include fingerprinting for Federal, State and Local background and abuse records checks; as well as the ability to work with many community partners .
What can a Foster Parent do for Our Children: The Foster Parent’s consistency, dependability, and honesty will have the most positive influence on the foster child’s adjustment to their new living environment. Foster homes should provide our child(ren) with a loving and accepting home without trying to replace their birth parent(s); provide a sense of self worth and self-esteem through a functional family life; give them daily care, help and guidance; and provide them with positive values and experiences that they will take with them wherever they go.
For additional information on how to become a foster parent, contact the Citrus recruitment line at 855-786-KIDS (5437) or you can visit www.citrusfcn.com.