Being a foster parent is strenuous work that requires perseverance and tough love. Margaret Clark knows. Through Lutheran Social Service (LSS), she and her husband have been foster parents to more than 100 children. But her understanding runs even deeper than that. She was a foster child, too, and remembers learning for the first time what it felt like to experience loving parents and a stable home. “Children who have been mistreated or taken from their homes because they’re not safe need some stability in their lives with people who care about them,” said Clark. May was National Foster Care Month, so Clark and a team of foster parents statewide encourage others to join them. According to the Minnesota Department of Human Services there are 4,141 licensed foster homes in Minnesota, not enough to care for the 11,300 children who need foster care. “There are times when we turn away referrals of children because we just don’t have enough licensed foster homes,” explained Darlene Wetterstrom, foster care coordinator for Lutheran Social Service. “Every child deserves a safe home and hopeful future, and a foster family can provide that.” Lutheran Social Service offers a specialized program called Treatment Foster Care. Through this program, foster parents are specially trained to parent children with challenging behaviors. LSS mental health practitioners work intensively with the child, the foster family, and the biological family with the goal of returning the child to the family. Staff are available 24 hours a day as a resource to families. Weekly support is provided to foster parents, along with monthly foster parent support meetings, ongoing newsletters, monthly reimbursement for each foster child, and training opportunities. Foster parents can be single or married, homeowners or renters. Children need foster parents who can: o Teach life skills; o Take time to listen and help them sort through problems; o Provide a stable family structure and positive values; o Recognize that they come from all different backgrounds and different values; and o Help children establish positive relationships in the family and the community. Most children in need of foster care are older children in sibling groups and from culturally diverse backgrounds. If you would like to provide stability and support to a foster child or sibling group, contact Lutheran Social Service at (320) 251-7700 or visit www.fostercaremn. org.
