Children and teens in foster care deserve safe and loving homes, and safe and loving homes are exactly what the UMFS Treatment Foster Care (TFC) team in #UMFSNOVA provides for youth.
“We have such diversity in our resource families,” said Laura Giunta, Regional Director in Northern Virginia. “Many of our families have previously adopted youth from the foster care system. Many families are also LGBT supportive and open to youth who’re addressing sexual identity and gender identity.”
The willingness of resource families to open their hearts and homes is critical to successful foster care placements, Laura said, but so too are proper supports. “The responsiveness from our TFC staff, flexibility of our current training model, and our home study process” are among many contributing factors that lead to successful placements, Laura said.
But success is very much a collective effort, Laura added. And foster parents not only utilize the supports that are available to them; they actively seek out UMFS staff for assistance when they’re feeling stuck.
Foster parents are unwavering champions, and they often say they choose to work with UMFS because of the staff’s accessibility and support. After all, the best way to multiply impact for children and teens in foster care is through collaboration.
To learn more about becoming a foster parent in Northern Virginia, visit https://www.umfs.org/foster or contact a recruiter at 804.256.2882.