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May is the time to officially recognize foster parents, who enrich the lives of children in foster care. KidsPeace — a behavioral health organization and child-placing agency providing therapeutic foster care services for children with mental health, emotional, behavioral, and developmental needs in Maine and several other states — is continually grateful for all the foster parents, who give their hearts, homes and compassion to children in need.
Foster parents rarely get the recognition they deserve. “This special person gives of themselves in ways others will never know,” states KidsPeace. “They open their homes and their lives to make a difference in a child’s life, providing children in care the structure and support they need to be successful. They give foster children a loving, nurturing safe home environment away from neglect and abuse.”
Day in and day out, foster parents continue to give of themselves, despite the behavioral challenges they are faced with on an ongoing basis. They show incredible flexibility, and recognize the importance of family relationships in whatever form that takes, whether it be reunification or inclusion in their own family.
Foster parents can expose children to new experiences and create happy childhood memories. They involve children in their daily life and take them on family vacations, fishing, camping, church services, and the like. Foster parents often make memory books for the child, so they have something to look back on and remember a positive time in their lives.
Communicating closely with the school to ensure educational needs are met and behavioral concerns are addressed, foster parents stay in close contact with KidsPeace staff to monitor progress and issues that may arise. Children in care often require daily communication between foster parents and staff.
When a child has been removed from a difficult home situation and placed in foster care, a foster parent is there with a warm smile and a kind heart, nurturing them during this difficult transition. They know how confused and scared a child can be, and they are there to try and make the child feel welcomed and safe.
Foster parents face many challenges of crisis and stress on a daily basis, helping children deal with stress, trauma, grief and loss when dealing with displacement and reunification, but the daily sacrifices are made to better a child’s life. Being a foster parent to any child is a noble undertaking, and the impact foster parents make on a child’s life is nothing less than incredible.
KidsPeace offers support to the foster parent as well as the foster child. “We focus on problem solving to find the best ways to work through a child’s challenging behavior,” according to KidsPeace. “We offer 24-hour support to our families to provide the support they require to do their job to the best of their ability. We provide clinical support with a strengths-base treatment team approach, and recognize all those individuals who are improving the lives of young people in foster care and encourage others to participate in efforts to serve children in need.”
To learn more about Therapeutic Foster Care, visit Fostercare.com/.
