Adriel Blog > April 2, 2024
How Foster Care Helps Protect Children
Foster care plays a pivotal role in safeguarding children and promoting family unity. Organizations like ours are dedicated to offering comprehensive services that not only protect children but also strive to preserve and reunify families whenever possible.
If you’re just beginning to explore what foster care is and how it works, check out this previous blog post to help set the stage. In this article, we focus on how foster care and the Adriel support system help protect children and preserve families.
Family Preservation and Foster Care
Not everyone initially associates “foster care” with “family preservation” - it’s a common misconception that foster care replaces the family. That’s just not true if we can help it, and often, we can.
Children come into foster care for many reasons. Their families may struggle with poverty, homelessness, or substance abuse. In some cases, there is also domestic violence, child abuse, or neglect in the home. When the need arises, custodial agencies seeking placement or respite for children make referrals to Adriel (or other administering organizations), which then seeks to match the child with a foster family in their local community for temporary care.
Adriel and other dedicated foster care organizations emphasize the importance of keeping kids safe while keeping families intact. While we are here to protect children through foster placement when that is necessary, we also assist families in navigating challenges, enhancing parenting skills, providing brief respite, and nurturing healthier relationships.
Here are some of the ways we protect children and preserve families.
Short-Term Respite Care to Protect Children
Recognizing the demands of caregiving, Adriel has licensed family foster homes available for weekend respites, one-to-two-week respites and for periods of up to 30 days (with some additional requirements beyond five days). This short-term break for primary caregivers is called respite care.
This type of care is all about family preservation. It’s an opportunity for families to have temporary relief from their caregiving responsibilities and for youths to have a break from a challenging family environment. It ensures that primary caregivers have the opportunity to rest and recharge, which is vital for maintaining a stable and supportive environment to protect children.
Keep Kids Safe through Kinship Training & Support
When children cannot remain with their immediate families, placing them with relatives or close family friends—known as Kinship Care—is often the preferred alternative. Kinship guardians of a child that is in the custody of a Public Children Services Agency (PCSA) are able to become licensed foster caregivers and receive benefits as a foster home.
Adriel provides comprehensive training and support for licensed kinship foster caregivers, ensuring they are well-equipped to protect children and meet the unique challenges they may face. Being licensed as a foster parent is a big responsibility, and the preparation and support you receive from Adriel can help ensure that you are taking the best possible care of your relative and/or other foster children. If you’re already caring for them, this not only enhances your experience, but also theirs.
Foster Child Placement When Needed
In urgent situations, when respite care is not enough, and if kinship care is not an option, we are committed to finding safe and nurturing foster homes for children in need. We accept referrals for foster child placement from every county in Ohio, ensuring that children receive the care they require within their communities.
Our program, together with our amazing network of licensed foster parents, offers youth in need of out-of-home placement the opportunity to live in a safe and loving home with a family in a community setting. We carefully screen, license, and train prospective foster parents on how to help and protect children in foster care and provide ongoing support while they foster children in their home.
We take great care in matching the children with foster families, working with a team of social workers, and providing intensive support on how to help keep kids safe in foster care. The objective is to encourage each youth to be as successful as possible and to reunite them with their family when the time is right.
Protect Children with Family Coaching
We offer consultation services to foster families and family coaching for biological families. This continuous support ensures that caregivers have access to resources and guidance, promoting well-being and stability to protect children in their care.
A family coach works with the entire family with the goal of keeping the family intact while providing tools and techniques for building and maintaining relationships as well as skills. Coaches help address issues like routine and structure, positive family interaction, behavioral intervention, and accessing community resources.
Supervised Visitation to Keep Kids Safe and Connected
One of the vital ways we support family preservation even when children are in foster care is through supervised visitation. Maintaining family connections is crucial for a child's emotional health. Supervised visitation allows children to safely interact with their biological families under the guidance of trained professionals. This service supports the goal of reunification by preserving essential family bonds.
Safe reunification is what we want. But that rarely happens overnight. To protect children and keep kids safe, it most often requires some element of issue resolution, training, education, and a documented positive change in the environment that led to the placement out of their home. Our visitation program provides help for children visiting family, including supervision, documentation, and a plan for reunification.
Successful Reunification Wherever Possible
The ultimate aim of foster care is to reunite children with their birth families when it is safe and appropriate. We work diligently towards this goal, providing the necessary support and resources to address underlying issues and facilitate successful reunifications.
According to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) Report #30, published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, approximately 53% of children in foster care had a case plan goal of reunifying with their parents or primary caretakers as of Fiscal Year 2022.
Additionally, data from the Trends in Foster Care and Adoption: FY 2013 – 2022 report indicates that in Fiscal Year 2022, approximately 47% of children exiting foster care were reunified with their parents or primary caretakers.
If a judge determines that reunification is not possible with the birth parent(s), foster children return to relatives/kinship placements wherever possible. If foster children are unable to return to their birth parents, and have no relatives available for kinship placements, to protect children, our foster parents may become permanent, loving adoptive homes for children.
Are You Ready to Help Us Protect Children in Ohio?
For those considering becoming foster parents, volunteering part-time to help children as a respite foster caregiver, or getting involved in another way, understanding these services and aspects of support is essential. Organizations like ours are dedicated to guiding and assisting you every step of the way, ensuring that together, we can provide safe, loving, and supportive environments to protect children in need.
Join the conversation with Adriel on Facebook or contact us to learn more.
