FOSTERING

Hastings Children’s Aid Society believes that every child has the right to grow and develop in a family environment within one’s own community and we work very hard to help children remain in their families. However, when children cannot remain at home because of serious concerns about their safety and protection, we make every effort to give a child a family and a home.

Where possible, the preferred option is to place the child with a member of the immediate or extended family or a member of the community. If that is not possible, foster care may be the best alternative because most of a child’s needs are best met in a family environment.

Who are foster children?

Jason Holland was a foster child.

Jason says his mother’s selection of a man while he was growing up rather poor. “He was pretty heavy handed; extremely abusive, physically and emotionally, and unfortunately, there was no one to protect me from his violence.”

The violence taking place in Jason’s home came to the attention of the Society when he was 10 years old and he came into care. Jason stayed in foster care, off and on, until the age of 14, when the violence escalated once again and he was permanently removed from his mother’s home.

Jason says, without the counseling and the support he received while in care of Hastings CAS, he would never have worked through his issues.

Now 38 years old, Jason has a successful career in the Navy and two wonderful children. “Whether I liked it or not at the time, I learned a lot of coping skills while in the care of CAS. Having the awareness of self, recognizing when I was not doing well, being willing to ask for help and finding it, have actually saved my life many times.”

Like Jason, children come into foster care for protection from abuse or neglect. Most often, they have been hurt by abuse, violence or neglect and need a stable, loving home and a caring family.

Each child is unique and there is no such thing as a typical foster child. Children come into care because there is a conflict within their family or the capacity to take care of them simply isn’t there.

Foster children range in age from infancy to 18 years of age and come from diverse cultural, religious and family backgrounds. Many foster children are teenagers; some are brothers and sisters; and some have physical, emotional and mental challenges. Whatever their individual circumstance, each foster child is going through a troubled period in his family and needs the care offered by foster parents.

Who are foster parents?

Maureen Morgan is a foster parent.

She has been fostering with Hastings CAS since 2003. In these 6 years, Maureen – the 2009 North Hastings Foster Parent of the Year Award recipient - has been a very busy woman, fostering young infants, sibling groups and teenagers.

Maureen’s calm presence allows her the ability to engage well with difficult youth, teenagers and even birth families. In many situations, Maureen’s commitment to the children she fosters has continued long after they leave her care.

Although Maureen lives outside the community, she faithfully makes the journey to Bancroft for cluster groups, Foster Parent Association and placement planning meetings and she’s been a volunteer driver with the Society.

Like Maureen, the Society’s many other foster parents are generous and giving members of our communities who step in to bridge the gap for children so they can stay in a family-based environment.

Foster parents work closely with Hastings Children’s Aid Society to provide temporary care to children for a few days, weeks, months or possibly years. They also prepare children for reunification with their biological families, adoption or long-term foster care. Hastings’s Children’s Aid Society provides training and education including PRIDE as well as ongoing assistance and financial supports to foster families to aid them in caring for children and youth.

Foster parents come from a diversity of cultures, religion and lifestyles. One thing they all share is a genuine interest in children and a sense of community responsibility.

How do I foster?

If you are interested in becoming a foster parent, Hastings Children’s Aid Society will help you through every step and make the process as seamless as possible for you.

Currently Hastings Children’s Aid Society has a high need for foster homes for children over two years of age, sibling groups and teens.

A number of supports are available to foster parents, including a 24 hour on-call worker, a family worker assigned to the foster family to help meet their needs, a child in care worker for every child who is in care, foster parent support groups that meet regularly and the Foster Parent Association.

Foster parents receive a daily rate or per diem for each child in their care. The money received by foster parents is non-taxable. It is considered reimbursement for expenses incurred and foster parents do not claim it as income. Foster parents are also reimbursed for expenses such as the foster child’s clothing and school supplies. All medical and dental expenses are covered as well.

What is Kinship Care?

Kinship Care is an option for a child’s placement. This option allows a relative, extended family member or a member of a child’s community to provide full time care, protecting and nurturing for children and young people in the care of Hastings Children’s Aid Society. The standard for assessing and preparing prospective kinship care families is the same as that for evaluating all foster or adoptive caregiver applicants.

Benefits of kinship care:

• children can live with people who they know and trust;
• children have some connection to their family of origin;
• builds on existing family and community relationships;
• supports the integrity of the family’s cultural and ethnic identity;
• children may be able to remain in their own community; and
• the child’s sense of belonging to a family is often enhanced

For more information about kinship and foster care click here, check out Winning Kids an Eastern Ontario foster and adoption recruitment program, or please contact us>>