foster parent training

After 16 years as a foster parent on Long Island, Donna Lauracella isn’t surprised when parents react with anger and mistrust after their children are removed by child welfare workers. Whenever possible, she tries to ease the transition by sitting down with the parent so they can both get to know each other a bit better.

The Imprint is highlighting each of the policy recommendations made this summer by the participants of the Foster Youth Internship Program (FYI), a group of 10 former foster youths who have completed congressional internships.

Out-of-home placement is sometimes necessary to meet the developmental needs of infants and young children through safe, stable and nurturing primary caregiving relationships. Foster parents may include caring and committed adults who have been trained to take on the fostering role with or without the possibility of adoption.

A former foster youth has created an innovative tool for professionals in the child welfare system through his online course, Fostering Resilience. Michael Place, now an international public speaker and child rights activist, recently launched Fostering Resilience to help professionals identify and foster resilient behaviors in children.

The Imprint is highlighting each of the policy recommendations made this summer by the participants of the Foster Youth Internship Program (FYI), a group of 12 former foster youths who have completed congressional internships.

The U.S. family foster care program dates back over 150 years. Known as the father of foster care, a young minister – Charles Loring Brace – was horrified by the thousands of orphaned and destitute European immigrant children he found roaming the streets of New York City or barely surviving in tenements and orphanages.

It happened years ago but I still remember it vividly. In a training for foster parents, I was given this exercise: “Think of the 10 things in this world you value most, which are most important in your life.