She watched as the city slowly passed by between each bus stop. The button on her cardigan sleeve was starting to detach slowly, due to her constant fidgeting with it.  The school bus filled and came closer to its destination. Rebecca kept telling herself that everything was going to be okay, but she was anxious.

Every year she and her mom would make a big deal about picking out her clothes before the first day

When Ms. Cheryl met Charlie, he was a year old, very thin, and did not make the usual babbling/speech sounds for a child his age. He acclimated fairly well to the home, but dinnertime always seemed to be a sore spot. Ms. Cheryl tried everything to get Charlie to eat.  Like most parents, she started by offering Charlie the typical dinner items that followed the recommended food pyramid (veggies, a starch, protein, etc.). However, Charlie

Most folks have heard the phrase “it takes a village to raise a child” at least once in their life. This simple phrase emphasizes the collective responsibility and involvement of a community in a child’s upbringing. For foster parents who frequently face the tough reality of burnout, the significance of one’s village is extremely important. Nearly half of all nationally licensed foster homes will quit within their first year of fostering. However, in order to

Interviews are part of the Caregiver Assessment.  Incoming foster parents are often very nervous about these sessions.  A professional is going to come to your home, ask invasive questions, and decide if you have what it takes to be a foster parent.  It is very understandable to feel nervous!  Let’s take a moment to better understand the purpose and the process of the interviews.  You might feel a bit better at the end!

Who

You’ve met the Eligibility Requirements and submitted your application.

You scheduled and completed your Housing Standards Assessment.

Now it is time for the Caregiver Assessment.  What does that mean?  Let’s learn together!

Caregiver Assessment

The Caregiver Assessment was once called the License Study.  It is a comprehensive assessment of your suitability to provide foster care.  There are many steps involved and it takes a while.  Below, explore the steps involved in the Caregiver Assessment

The Housing Standards Assessment is typically the first time you will meet the Homefinding Team. 

This visit is a planned visit that occurs at your home once your application has been accepted. 

For specifics on the eligibility requirements to apply to foster, check out our blog before this.  Once you are caught up, continue on with this blog!

The Housing Standards Assessment is a time for the Homefinding Team to meet you, sit down and

Who is eligible to become a foster parent? 

This is a question we are often asked.  Let’s dive into some of the specifics!

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts licenses or authorizes contracted agencies to license foster and adoptive parents in our state.  There are specific criteria that must be met in order to qualify to apply.  Once you qualify to apply, the assessment begins. 

Let’s start with the application qualifications in this post, and we will

Biological families, or families of origin, are often painted with a broad brush and in a terrible light.  The fear of family work often is one of the factors that holds potential foster families at arms length and dissuades them from becoming foster parents. 

Let’s take a moment to talk about what family work looks like and how foster parents can build bridges, not fences, between themselves and families.

Who are Families Involved in

She hoists her backpack on her shoulder and scans the room.  Is anything left in a drawer?  Beside the bed?  Did she leave her toothbrush in the bathroom?   It is barely morning, her brain hasn’t quite shaken the fog of restless sleep, but she can’t forget anything.  She doesn’t know if she’ll be coming back.

Elisa gets into the gray sedan parked in the driveway, the headlights making ghosts in the shadows of the early

A question that I always get: “Why do you always hear that the need for foster parents is great?”

• Do we not open new homes?
• Do we not receive applications?
• Where do existing foster homes go?

These are all great questions, so let’s dive in.

Retirement

The average age of an applying JRI Foster parent is 51 years old. That means they are often empty-nesters who are ready to parent a new group of children