May is National Foster Care Month, a time to celebrate the hundreds of foster and kinship foster families in Vermont who provide nurturing homes for children when they can’t be at home due to safety concerns.
Foster families open their hearts and homes to keep children safe, support parents, and help families stay connected. The foster care system allows children to stay in their local communities and retain connections to the places and people that are familiar to them. Currently in Vermont there are over 1200 children in foster care. The children range in age from infants to teenagers.
Strengthening families and focusing on their well-being is the key to building strong communities. Whether it’s promoting a collaborative relationship between birth parents and foster caregivers or providing parents with the right combination of supportive services to enable reunification, keeping families together is the primary goal in a successful child welfare system.
The key message of National Foster Care Month 2019 is to recognize that foster care must act as a support system for families, not a substitute for parents. Developing partnerships between local agencies, community organizations, and individuals within a family’s network is key to building a supportive foundation that supports family reunification and preservation.
Everyone can do something to help children in foster care. If this is not the right time in your life to foster a child or children, consider providing respite care. Respite care provides foster parents opportunities to relax, re-energize, and attend to additional responsibilities. Respite care can be for a few hours or a few days. Or you could be a mentor to a child in foster care. Or perhaps use the month of May to spread awareness of the foster care system and the needs of the children currently in foster care. Click here for ideas of how to do this.
To learn more about foster care in Vermont, click here.
