Fostering offers opportunity to make a difference

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Each year in Saskatchewan about 1,600 children are removed from their homes and placed in foster care. Almost 70 per cent of those children are of Aboriginal ancestry.

The transition is easier for Aboriginal children who are placed within foster homes where one or both of the parents is Aboriginal. With such placements the child can more easily maintain a connection to their culture, to their community and often to their extended family, explained Natalie Huber, senior program consultant for foster care with the Child and Family Service division of the province's Community Resources and Employment department. But, with Aboriginal foster families making up only 27 per cent of the provincial total, often such placements aren't possible. Many more Aboriginal foster families are needed to try to meet the demand.

There may be many reasons why a person becomes a foster parent, but the ones Huber hears the most from foster families are the emotional and moral rewards that come with the job.

"When we've done any kind of surveys with our foster families the most predominant one that comes out is the fact that they feel they're really making a difference in these children's lives, that they've opened up their homes and their hearts and their families and that they really feel that, whatever short time or long time a child has been in the home, that it has been beneficial," Huber said.

"So it seems to be more on the giving sense of thing, that they've been able to offer that time and that love and that care for the child on a temporary basis, and some for a long-term basis as well."

Before becoming a foster parent, a person has to go through a stringent approval process.

"The department has a number of checks and balances and there is quite a rigorous approval process in place to actually get a foster parent approved and up and running and trained," Huber said. "So those number of checks and balances include looking at any child and family services history they may have had, police record checks, home safety checks ... there's a number of checks and balances that are in place to ensure that the applicants are safe, healthy individuals who will be able to provide a good, caring and loving home for the children."

The department's primary concern is providing a safe place for children in care, she said. "And of course, encouraging a child to be in an environment where they can grow and develop."

There are a number of supports in place to help foster parents care for the children placed with them, Huber said. One of those supports is the foster home resource co-ordinator, who assists with placements in and out of the home and are there to support, train and advocate for the home. The resource co-ordinator can help put parents in touch with any training they might require.

"So they don't carry any child care files or child care responsibilities or child protection responsibilities in relation to working with the children and the families, necessarily. They're just there to support the homes."

Foster parents also receive training from the department, both before they are approved as foster parents and ongoing training after approval.

Each year one week, usually the third week of October, is designated as Foster Families Week and set aside as a time to recognize and celebrate the contributions foster families make in the lives of the children in their care, Huber said. "But we also try to create more awareness in the community about what the role of foster parents is and how the department works with foster families and try to recruit and draw in some interested parties."

This year's Foster Families Week will run from Oct. 17 to 23 and will begin with an official kick-off in Yorkton.

A provincial foster families conference is also held every two years, giving foster families a chance to get together and recognize each other's contributions, but also to learn, thanks to presentations by a numbe of guest speakers. The last provincial conference was held this past June in Saskatoon; the next will take place in June 2006.

For more information on how to become a foster parent, visit the department Web site at http://www.dcre.gov.sk.ca or the Web site of the Saskatchewan Foster Families Association at http://www.sffa.sk.ca. You can also get more information by contacting your regional Community Resources and Employment office or by calling 1-800-667-7002.