What are the Rewards?

As a foster parent, you will experience daily rewards. The most powerful reward is the difference you are making in the life of a child and in his or her family. As the foster parent, you are the primary agent for change for the child. While there will be many people on your team supporting you and the child every step of the way, you are ultimately the primary support for the child through his/her journey to achieving permanency. As this support person, you are not only impacting the child, but also his/her family. The rewards of helping a child and family reunite, or helping a child achieve permanency in other ways (i.e. adoption, independent living, etc.) are immeasurable.

Beyond the rewards provided to you by the children and families you serve, you will also receive ongoing support and training from FCSVA in order to ensure that you are always well-prepared to meet the needs of the children in your home. Foster parent support groups and monthly in-service trainings offer both the rewards of being a part of a foster parent community and being among others with a common purpose, as well as the reward of knowledge and skills that will aid you in your daily work as a foster parent.

What are the Basic Requirements?

• In order to be a foster parent in the state of Virginia, you must be at least 21 years old. You can be single or married.
  
• You will need to have a safe and clean home environment and a steady income.
  
• You must have reliable transportation and the flexibility to transport foster children to important appointments (i.e. medical appointments, biological family visits).
  
• You must complete child abuse and criminal background checks with satisfactory results.
  
• Your foster home must pass Fire and Health inspections and must have adequate bedroom space for a foster child.
  
• You must complete 27 hours of pre-service training provided by FCSVA.
  
• And you must undergo a home study completed by FCSVA.

Comprehensive Clinical Training: Each foster family is taken through the nationally recognized PRIDE mutual assessment process, receiving clinical, behavioral and psychological training. This comprehensive training program enables parents to properly manage children’s behavior. Many foster parents state that this training has become invaluable in every aspect of their own lives and relationships. Further, foster parents are provided with monthly clinical in-service trainings to ensure that they are always building upon their knowledge and skills to meet the needs of the children placed in their homes.

24/7 Support Team and Crisis Intervention: Foster parents have ‘round-the-clock’ access to our highly qualified treatment team. We are available to support you through daily issues in working with the youth and we can be reached day or night 24/7 in the case of a crisis. Our support team is always a phone call away and eager to serve you.

Therapy and Counseling for Youth and Families: As just one of the professional support services we provide, counseling services are provided for the child and his/her biological family. FCSVA feels strongly that the foster parent should always be a part of the therapeutic process, and involves the foster family in the therapy sessions as appropriate and as necessary for each individual child.

Medical, Dental and Mental Health Services: Foster parents are free from worrying about the cost of healthcare services and medications for their foster children. FCSVA facilitates the payment of all medical bills incurred by children in care through Virginia Medicaid.

Respite: To provide a break from the demands that foster care can place on an individual and on a family, FCSVA offers respite for all foster parents on a regular basis.

Competitive Financial Reimbursement: FCSVA ensures that every foster family is provided with sufficient financial reimbursement for the care of the foster children placed in their foster homes.

What is the First Step?

You have made the first step! You’ve begun to research and determine what will be the best route for you to take in your goal to serve children and families. Now it is time to learn more about what it means to be a therapeutic foster parent, and what it will mean to be a part of For Children’s Sake of Virginia. The next step will be to attend a “no-strings-attached” foster parent orientation to learn more about being a foster parent, about the requirements, and about the process towards becoming approved. In order to be connected to the FCSVA Foster Home Development Department and sign up to attend a foster parent orientation. Contact us electronically at fhd@fcsva.org, or call us at (703) 817-9890.

Some questions to consider before becoming a foster or adoptive parent.

Are you sure of your parenting skills but willing to learn new skills to deal with new behaviors?

Can you adopt good, firm boundaries right from the start while remaining secure in your ability to parent?

Can you love and care for a child who has come from an environment that is completely different than your own?

 
Can you care about a child and help them feel like they belong with your family while knowing that the child’s placement with your family may end before you are ready?

Can you discipline with empathy and know that the anger a child may feel and express is not personally directed at you although it may look and feel as though it is?

Can you maintain an understanding that behavioral problems of any kind are often a direct result of abuse or neglect?

Can you measure success and failure in new and creative ways?

 
Can you work as part of a professional team while you may disagree with the process or outcome?

Can you tenaciously advocate for the rights of a child?

Can you accept a relationship with parents you might never want to know because of behavior they have expressed with the child you care for?

Can you remember that love and loss are sometimes very hard to do and that you have to let go when it seems impossible?

These questions are remarkably real for foster and adoptive parents. If you can answer yes to the majority of these questions then you have the ability to be an excellent and highly professional foster or adoptive parent. We need you, we will support you and we will ensure that you are very well trained to deal with these questions and the answers. We are waiting for you.