Justin & Jon started their foster care journey only wanting to foster one child at a time. Shortly after taking their first placement, they learned that there was a non-verbal autistic child who needed a home and they rose to the challenge, purchased bunk beds, and took the child in their home.
Since becoming a foster caregiver, Rosemund Baptiste has been passionate about keeping siblings together and has fostered several sets of siblings and helped them to transition back home with family. To this day, she remains in contact with each child that has left her home and she offers support to the birth family.
As we're continuing to celebrate Foster Family Appreciation Week, we want to introduce you to the Newell family! When Brian and Danielle heard that there was a young sibling group of 3 that needed a home they quickly rose to the occasion by taking children outside of their normal age range to ensure that the siblings could remain together. They quickly obtained an extra bed and bought clothing and toys for the three siblings.
Meet the Hargrove family! Levi and Maria are passionate about caring for teens. They have helped many foster youth transition into adulthood and maintain contact with all of the teens that leave their home. Their teens know that they can always contact Levi and Maria for guidance and support and that their home is always open to them.
My wife, Joy-Lynn and I became Foster Parent Mentors (FPM) through Heartland for Children in 2012. When we were approached with the opportunity to be an added support for incoming Foster Parents, we jumped at the opportunity because we saw the value in having someone who other Foster Parents could relate to as being an invaluable resource; especially, if the individual(s) were completely new to the fostering and/or parenting experience.
As FPMs through Heartland, we've had the chance to interact with incoming Foster Parents on many levels including assisting with respite, providing guidance or best practices with difficult behavioral issues, advocating for a child who had to be moved from one home to another, making recommendations on working with case management, providing another vantage point through the process of Termination of Parental Rights (TPR), and many other areas that Foster Parents can encounter during their first and continuing years of child advocates.
What we've gained as FPMs is a heightened level of understanding of how important it is to identify the needs of incoming Foster Parents. Being able to make recommendations on how the training component has and can continue to successfully equip incoming parents with the proper training and education; is a value add that Heartland has really welcomed input on.
Cebien Alty - HFC Foster Parent, Foster Parent Mentor