There are number of ways in which you can foster – each with its particular purpose and per diem rate. While the requirements and the approval process are the same, not all agencies support the full range of care options. Contact the agency nearest you for more details.
Regular Foster Care
This is the most common fostering arrangement. You will provide a safe, stable, nurturing home environment for children and youth. Regular Foster Families provide all the essential elements of daily family life that a child or youth need.
Customary Care
Customary care relates to the care of First Nations/Aboriginal children. Customary care is alternate care provided to aboriginal children by the aboriginal community. These arrangements allow children and youth to keep important cultural and family ties.
Emergency Assessment Foster Care
Emergency assessment foster families take in children, sometimes with very short notice in crisis situations, until longer term arrangements can be made. If you become an emergency foster family, you could receive calls at any time of the day or night.
Specialized or Treatment Foster Care
Specialized or treatment foster families have the enhanced skills, and experience necessary to meet the more specialized physical, emotional and behavioural needs of a child. Specialized training, supervision and clinical supports are part of this team approach.
Relief or Respite Care
Relief or Respite families provide relief to foster or birth parents. These families welcome children into their care for short periods of time. Respite care provides support service for families whose children are not in care, but require assistance to maintain the ongoing care of their children. Relief foster care provides temporary care as a support to regular full-time foster families. These placements are usually for a matter of days and may appeal to those families wishing to consider fostering part-time.
Kinship Care
Kinship care occurs when children and youth are cared for by members of their immediate or extended family, family friend or someone in their community. The care provided is similar to regular foster care.
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Foster with a View to Adopt
We place a child in the foster home, expecting that the foster parent(s) will adopt, if the child becomes legally available for adoption (when parental rights are terminated). One advantage of such a placement is that it allows children to be placed with a possible permanent family as soon as possible, thereby sparing the child the transition to another foster family or to an adoptive family.
There are three types of Foster with a View to Adopt scenarios:
- Formalizing an existing foster care relationship into an adoption.
This usually occurs when the child in a stable long term foster family is legally adopted by their foster care providers.
- Foster parents are concurrently assessed for adoption. When they enter into a foster care relationship, if the child becomes legally available for adoption then the relationship formally changes to adoption. As a result the child remains with the same family.
- Concurrent Planning.
This is a process of working towards reunification of a child with their biological family, or other kin member while at the same time establishing a back-up plan. In the event that family reunification is unsuccessful, our priority would be to find the child an adoptive family.
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