Professional Foster Parenting
Professional Foster Parenting invites you to open your home and your heart to a child who needs a loving home. UCAN's children and youth have experienced loss, grief, abuse, and/or neglect; and through our foster parenting program, they have the opportunity to live healthy, full lives. The primary goal of foster care is to restore children safely to their families; foster parents play an essential function in helping the child and parents maintain their family bond during the period of separation. If a child cannot return home, foster parents may provide a permanent home. When this happens, the foster parents eventually assume legal responsibility for the child as the guardian or through adoption.
Currently UCAN's Foster Care Parent Applications are down 18%. With an influx of youth into our program, there is a great need for new foster parents to obtain licenses at this time.
Foster parents are especially important for teenagers, guiding them through turbulent adolescent years and helping them enter into adulthood. Erin Ginn, Foster Care recruitment and Licensing Specialist in Lake County explains, "We do not have many homes that will take children ten and over, yet the average age for a youth in the Illinois DCFS system is fourteen." (Youth in the DCFS system are age 0-21; the age limit can be extended to 23 if the youth is in college or developmentally delayed.) "We are looking for homes in Cook and Lake County that would be willing to accept youth age ten and over as well as youth who have special needs. We are also always looking for homes that will accept any race and currently have a great need for Spanish-speaking and bilingual homes in Lake County."
The state of Illinois sets basic requirements for individuals or families wishing to become foster parents. In addition, UCAN ensures that all our foster parents are best suited for the children and youth we place in their homes. We have many different types of foster parents; applicants may be single or married but must be at least 23 years of age. Applicants must be law-abiding citizens, in good physical and mental health, and have sufficient household income to suitably care for children in their homes - to be supplemented by a monthly stipend.
Above all, UCAN seeks foster parents who are willing to change the life of a child - someone who can make the commitment to provide a safe and stable environment along with quality, loving care for troubled children and youth in Illinois.
"These children are an untapped resource.
I want to give them a chance."
- Detective Gerald Hamilton,
foster parent for more than 70 young men
There are many benefits to becoming a Professional UCAN Foster Parent! Here are some of the ways that UCAN's Professional Foster Parenting Program supports our foster parents:
- We assist with placement and adoption
- We advocate for foster parents' needs
- We provide volunteers and mentors
- We offer therapeutic interventions
- We offer on-going foster parent training and support groups
- We offer case management services
UCAN offers several opportunities for those interested in fostering:
- Traditional foster care: Foster parents give children family-centered and supportive care and an opportunity to heal from the trauma of their earlier life.
- Specialized foster care: A unique program dedicated to providing stability in the lives of children and youth with challenging problems. These may include behavioral, emotional, physical and mental disabilities.
- Home of relative foster care: An opportunity for relatives to become caregivers and to provide kinship care in a safe, stable environment for a foster child who is related to them.
- Partners in Parenting program: Provision of a safe and nurturing environment for a pregnant or parenting teen and teaching that teen parent how to be a loving parent.
- Adolescent program: Care for youth with multiple needs including serious mental health, developmental and medical conditions requiring intensive supervision and treatment.
Are you interested in finding out more about our Professional Foster Parenting Program or becoming a foster parent?
In Cook County, please contact: Michael Ann Wiley at 312-738-5944 or wileym@ucanchicago.org
In Lake/McHenry Counties, please contact: Erin Ginn at 847-932-4666 or ginne@ucanchicago.org
Para comunicarse con alguien en Español, favor de llamar a Francisco Monzon al numero 708-201-3028.
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