Perhaps you’re considering becoming a foster parent but you’re worried that you’ll be left to fend for yourself – and your foster child or children – without any kind of support or help – so What Help Do Foster Parents Get?
This can be highly off-putting, especially if you’re on the fence about signing up in the first place.
You’ll want to know that there is help out there for you should you need it.
The good news is that foster parents are not just left to their own devices; there is a lot of support available, and it comes in a variety of different forms.
Read on to find out more and you might find that your fears are allayed and you feel much more ready to get started.
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Financial Help
As a potential foster parent, one of your biggest concerns may well be money.
It might not be polite to admit this, but it is certainly important; you are going to need money to survive, and you’re going to need money to provide the child in your care with whatever they need from food and clothes to schooling and entertainment.
However, because fostering is a full-time job in itself, the worry will be whether you can actually afford to do it.
The answer is that, in the majority of cases at least, you can.
This is because foster parents are paid a set amount of money per week or month to take care of their foster children.
Although foster care pay might not be the same as a full time salary (how much will depend on a variety of factors including where you live), it will certainly be a lot of help, and it should make the transition from working to staying at home to take care of the foster kids a much easier one.
Training
As we’ve said, no foster parent is ever going to just be handed a child and asked to take care of them.
There is a lot of training that has to take place first, and only when the agency the potential foster parent has signed up with feels they are ready will they be put in charge of the wellbeing and life of a foster child.
This should soothe some concerns.
If you were worried that you would fill in a form and then be given a child, this is not the case at all.
The training can take many months, and there will be a variety of assessments to go through as well.
Your home will need to be checked, and you will have to speak to a lot of people about why you want to be a foster parent.
Your finances, resources, and background will be checked as well.
Although this might seem like a lot, the truth is that it’s a good thing; it means you will be entirely ready to foster, and the child you take care of will be in the best hands.
So What Help Do Foster Parents Get?
Finally, although you might not know how to be a foster parent right now, and although you probably have a lot of questions, you need never fear that you’ll have to figure it all out for yourself; there will always be help when you need it.
