May 08, 2017
National Foster Care Month 2017
May is National Foster Care Month, and this is a campaign near and dear to our hearts. Adoption and foster care are intimately connected. Although different in process, they both seek to connect children with loving, supportive families, and to help ensure safe, bright futures for fostered youth. Foster care is often misunderstood, but not as much as the over 400,000 individuals who live within the system. They are often subject to misleading stereotypes, and if they do not find families before they turn 18, may be thrust out into the world as technically legal adults, but with no support system or family unit to fall back on.
Many people think the only way to support foster children is by becoming a foster parent, but that’s simply not true.When we talk about celebrating National Foster Care Month, we like to illuminate the many ways people can offer their support outside of becoming a foster parent.
Here are a few:
- Offer your transportation. Children in foster communities often need help getting to and form important appointments: visitations, school, medical and mental health appointments. Connect with local foster care organizations to see what sorts of needs they have from a transportation perspective. Not being able to get somewhere is isolating, lonely, and frustrating. Your car could provide freedom and companionship, while helping a child or teen secure the resources they need to secure a brighter, healthier future.
- Bring your skills to the foster care system. Are you a teacher, lawyer, doctor, or have any special skills that could be used to educate a child and provide them with new resources or knowledge? You can be a tutor, offer pro bono legal services, teach, educate, or help a child or teen learn new skills. Your talents and experience could give a child in foster care the confidence they need to go for their goals and share their gifts with the world.
- Donate donate donate! Clothes, recreational equipment, books, musical instruments, art supplies, summer or after-school programs—anything your child would need from birth to age 18, fostered youth need as well. Your donations would allow them to not only take care of their basic needs, but to potentially join communities with their peers that otherwise would be financially out of reach.
- Consider the kids who have aged out of the system. What resources do they need? Whether it’s help with college tuition, furnishing a new apartment, transportation, or appropriate clothing for job interviews or new career opportunities, children who have aged out of the system are often all on their own with little or no resources with which to continue building their life. At such a pivotal moment in their adulthood, the right resources mean everything when it comes to career, further education, and the ability to support themselves. Anything you can do to help bolster these young men and women goes a long way towards giving them a chance for a more solid and successful future.
When in doubt, reach out to your local foster care agency and see what needs they have. Anything you offer has the potential to be a life-saving gift. Visit the Child Welfare Information Gateway for more resources and information.
