10 Ways to Support Children in Foster Care
There are many ways to get involved, flexible to fit your resources, time, and ability to help! Check out our list of 10 ways to support vulnerable children in foster care and the families that care for them.
1. Pray! The most important thing we can do is to pray for the children in care and the families who love them. Try the Novena to St. Joseph if you need a place to start.
2. Use Social Media to help increase awareness of the foster care crisis. Check out Springs of Love on Instagram and feel free to share and repost any photos you find inspiring!
3. Register at www.CarePortal.org to find out about the material needs of foster, kinship, and birth families in your area.
4. Raise Awareness. Host a “Family for Every Child” event at your parish. Show a Springs of Love video and invite your local foster care agency to speak about the needs in your community.
5. Support a Foster Family. Offer prayers, food, childcare, rides, and material support, or start a FosterLove Care Team for them. Care Teams help increase the retention rate of foster families from 50% after 1 year to 90%.
6. One-Time Service Projects. Provide backpacks, sensory toys, blankets, heatable stuffed animals, and school supplies to local youth in care.
7. Host a Foster Parents Night Out. Provide restaurant gift cards for the parents, and fun activities for all of their children.
8. Become a Respite Provider. Host children occasionally to provide breaks for foster parents.
9. Become a Foster Parent. Pray and ask God if He might be calling you to foster. Attend the virtual discernment retreat on SpringsofLove.org. (All content is free, just register to gain access!). Go to an information session at your local foster care agency.
10. Support Springs of Love through prayer, volunteering, and financial donations to continue the mission of encouraging, educating, and equipping more Catholic families to foster and adopt.
