Foster care provides children with a safe, nurturing home when their biological families are unable to care for them.
In most cases, foster care is meant to be a temporary placement. Placements could take place for days, weeks, months, or in some cases years. The ultimate goal of foster care is to give a child a form of stability in the absence of biological parents, until the reunification of a child with their family.
Every single child in the foster care system is different, and has their own unique story and needs. Children are placed into homes on a case-by-case basis, and there are many different types of care, along with different durations of care.
Kinship care refers to whenever a child is placed in the care of a family member, or a close family friend whenever a biological parent or parents are unable to care for their child.
Typically, this is the most preferred option as children are then able to remain with people that are familiar, allowing them to hold onto a sense of normalcy in the absence of their parents and assists in creating a sense of stability.
Traditional placements are longer-term foster care arrangements where children live with foster families while a plan is developed for their future. This could include reunification with their birth family, adoption, or another permanent solution. Traditional placements provide children with a stable, nurturing environment as they navigate life’s changes.
Emergency placements are short-term, immediate care arrangements made when a child needs to be removed from an unsafe or unstable situation without delay. These placements provide urgent shelter and safety, often lasting from a few days to a couple of weeks, until a more permanent placement can be arranged.
Respite care offers temporary relief to foster families by providing short-term care for a child in their home. This could be for a few hours, days, or weeks, helping foster parents take a break, attend to emergencies, or manage personal needs, all while ensuring the child remains in a safe and familiar environment.
Lifespan Family Services hosts an information session each Tuesday & Wednesday. This is a fantastic opportunity to get in touch with our staff members and ask questions about foster care before beginning the process.
Tuesday's information session is hosted both in-person at our Washington Location, (69 E Beau St, Washington, PA), and virtually.
Wednesday's information session is hosted both in-person at our Luthersburg location, (2672 Helvetia Road, Luthersburg, PA, 15848) and virtually for your convenience.
After your initial inquiry, a social worker will get in contact with you for more information and to assist you on the beginning of your journey into foster parenting. This part of the process will focus on gathering information about you, members of your household, and deciding on whether or not you are a good candidate for foster parenting.
If a family is approved to move forward in the foster parenting process, mandatory training is required.
Parents will complete at least 20 hours of training during the approval process which will cover safety, parenting and the unique challenges & joys of foster parenting.
Your agency will be there for you every step of the way!
Each agency has different requirements during the home approval process. All of these requirements are in place to ensure the safety of each child that is placed in a home.
A social worker will visit the home and ensure that it is safe for a child to live and thrive in, and that they will have adequate space.
Every child and every case is different. Agencies do everything they can to ensure a smooth placement, and that includes making sure that foster children are only placed with parents who were looking for children in their age group, and children who have needs specific to what a parent can handle.
Every placement is done based on age, room available in a house, trauma that a child has faced, and location of a family and the school district that a child is in.
In most cases, agencies will attempt to keep children within the same school district to avoid any more instability in their lives.
Throughout the entire foster parenting process, your agency will be there every step of the way! Lifespan offers support to families 24/7 for anything from basic questions, to assisting in training & home safety.
In the state of Pennsylvania alone, there are over 15,000 children in the foster care system who are in need of a safe and loving home to thrive in.
Nationally, there are over 400,000 children in the system. Every single person can make a difference for these children.
A lot of the Lifespan Foster Families have said that fostering is one of the most meaningful journeys that a family can go on, and they have highly recomended it.
Even if someone is unable to foster, they are still able to help!
Individuals are able to adopt, donate to a local agency like Lifespan Family Services, donate needed items to a local agency, sponsor a family in need, or they can even educate people about the foster care world.
Even if someone can't foster, they also have the option to adopt, donate, educate, or sponsor a family in need.
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