How to Help Foster Parents

Serving as a foster parent isn’t for everyone—and that's okay! What can be for everyone is supporting foster families! Foster families need it, deserve it, and will likely welcome it. 
 
Here are ways you can help: 
 
Quick Support-For those what don't have much time to give but would still like to show support. 

• Drop encouraging words or be a listening ear. I love it when people genuinely just ask how it’s going. It helps me process what’s happening in my foster son's case and how I’m feeling about it. And just feels nice to know someone cares.
• Bring clothes for the foster placement. When someone has a biological baby, they usually have 9 months to buy things and often are gifted many items through baby showers, etc. But with fosters, who typically don’t come with many clothes or personal items and with little preparation (foster parents usually get a call that a child is coming that same day!), foster parents have to get all their clothes and necessities in the span of a week or two after the child is in their home. If you have clothes that will fit the child that you can drop off, or can pick up some things when you’re at the store, that would go a long way!  

 
Strong Support-Great for those who are close to the foster family but may have their own major responsibilities going on. 

• Bring a meal or create a meal train. The first few weeks of fostering are a bit like having a biological newborn, except in addition to adjusting to life with a new family member, foster parents are also dealing with paperwork, school enrollment, multiple mandatory doctor’s appointments, CPS visits, bio family visits, bonding and much more. If you can deliver a meal or groceries, great! If you can schedule a meal train for a few nights, even better.
• Get certified to babysit. It depends on the state, agency and situation, but typically, foster kids can’t supervised by just anyone. Often, the person who babysits has to be finger-printed, background-checked, and have passed a recent CPR test. This can take a bit of time before you even get to babysit but would show amazing support of the foster family in your life. (You’ll have to talk to the foster family about what their agency requires before getting started here). 
• Be “on-call” support. Telling a foster family you’re available for tasks when needed is like giving them gold. Help them build shelves for their foster's room, run an errand for them, help them do dishes or other quick jobs. 

 
All-In Support-Great for those who are retired or otherwise able to make a major investment in the foster family. 

• Serve as Respite Care. Being a foster parent is challenging to say the least. Respite care can be a huge help because it offers foster parents an overnight and/or multi-day break. While it often varies from state-to-state and agency-to-agency, to offer respite care, you typically have to undergo many of the same trainings and screenings that foster parents do. But imagine being able to jump in should the foster family need to go out of town for a family emergency (since they may not get CPS approval to take the child with short notice). Or just being there so that the foster parents could take a well-deserved, kid-free weekend. This point is also a great way to get your feet wet if you’re interested in fostering but aren't sure if you're fully ready to take it on yet. (As above, check with the foster family to see what would be required if you’re interested in this.)

Ultimately, the best way to help foster families is to talk to them. It may not work to ask "what can I do to help?", because many will probably say they don't need anything. But hopefully by listening to their situation, you'll be able to gather their true needs and can support them in a way that works for you. 

Thanks for being a part of a foster child's village!