Attending Foster Parent Association Meetings Brings Awareness
By Janna Bruins
As an experienced foster mother, and through talking with other foster parents, I have come to believe that foster parents need to make a commitment to join a local foster parent group.
The role of foster parents has changed over the last decade. Years ago the social worker assumed responsibility for many tasks which are not taken care of by the foster parents (taking the child to a doctor, talking to school personnel, or purchasing clothing). This transition has been accompanied by a decline in worker-foster parent contacts because of manpower shortages. Many foster parents, although they complain at times about the infrequent visits of the social worker, have felt quite satisfied to be independent.
I believe, however, that the time is past due for foster parents to realize that when they make their home available for a foster child, they take on a responsibility that involves more than taking care of the child. They become part of a system that provides a unique service in the community, and one that is desperately needed. Our society is becoming more complex, and the children coming into care are more complicated children.
Foster parents are not super-parents. They need a sounding board to test their effectiveness in foster parenting. In a foster parent association meeting, problems can be openly discussed. The group forms a solid sounding board to any foster parent. Invaluable help can be received when the whole group contributes by sharing possible solutions to a problem.
At meetings foster parents can receive information about valuable training courses, organized by local colleges and taught by qualified professionals. Agency workers are often present at meetings to answer questions on policy and decision making. They can help foster parents to see how they can work together as colleagues with their social worker to plan for the child.
Long-time foster parents are needed to give support to new foster parents. They need to learn about new policies and child-caring techniques. Their voice is needed to speak collectively to improve overall child welfare standards. To really benefit a child, foster parents need to work as partners with agency workers and natural parents.
I believe that foster parents all over British Columbia need to shoulder this added responsibility of becoming active members of their local Foster Parent Association. While there are about 4500 families involved in foster care in British Columbia, only some fifty local Foster Parent Associations have been started so far.
I would like to recommend that new foster parents should be asked, when they first apply to become foster parents, to commit themselves for at least one year to active participation in local Foster Parent Association.