 December 13, 2023 Vol 3, Issue 12
The Call to Foster Podcast: S1E12
"I always try to put myself in their shoes."
Season 1 Episode 12: Shasta, Jessica and Ashton chat with Abby Pancoast about her foster parenting journey. Abby admits that they became foster parents with the intention to adopt and discusses the heartbreak that can come with reunification. She also shares some insight into what it might look like to be a foster parent during the holiday seasons.
Please subscribe to and share this podcast with anyone you know who might be considering fostering! You can listen to the podcast on most popular podcast platforms.
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Transportation from Kathy Haddock
Family visits are so important to maintain attachment with the child's family and reassure them that their parents are still safe and connected to them, but scheduling can be tricky. Supervised visits have to happen when a supervisor is available and that means visits sometimes happen during school and work hours. The Cooperative Agreement for the Purchase of Professional Parenting Services (yes, you signed it even if you didn't memorize the title) says that Resource Parents are expected to “provide reasonable and customary transportation for children to school, community activities,…and family visits.” Realistically, “customary transportation” to visits during work hours or even when you have several other kids at home may not be sustainable, thus not “reasonable.” No one would consider moving a child and causing more trauma because a foster family is unable to transport to every appointment and visit. There are several solutions to make ensure that families get the visits they need:
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Foster parent transportation: This is ideal because kids have a safe and well-known person before and after visits. This also give you easy access to first parents to build those bonds and support reunification. Foster parents can make drop off easier by stating clearly that they will be there for pick up on time.
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Case manager: The guardian of record is an obvious choice for visit transportation. At least once a month you can parlay this session into home visits for the child, foster family, and first family. Supervising visits also allows an opportunity for firsthand assessment of how the family is managing the separation. Unfortunately, case managers have double and triple caseloads so there is barely enough time for required family visits without multiple visits and trips for one family.
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Case Aid: Some circuits are lucky enough to have a case aid that can help with a variety of things to lessen the Case Manager’s workload.
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Parent Aid: While we usually see parent aids as a person to provide parenting interventions during visits, agencies with a CTS contract have a budget item in the contract to include transportation to and from the visit. If you have a local agency with a CTS contract request authorization from your circuit for transportation.
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Older children or teen nannies can provide transportation. While missing school may not be ideal, picking up after visits can be a good way for older children to help and foster parents to maintain work schedules.
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Show Me Healthy Kids has a transportation service that will help pay for public transportation to appointments and visits. Call your CARE Coordinator to get help.
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Friends or Relatives of the Foster Family. Remember Prudent Parenting says if you would send your biological kids with them that they can occasionally help with you foster kids as well.
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Friends or relatives of the biological parents. Just because someone wasn’t chosen as a placement doesn’t mean they can’t be a part of the child’s life. Kids will enjoy connection with family that can be an ongoing support after reunification.
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Seek support from community organizations, civic groups, or churches. Many groups are willing to help out with kids in foster care but aren’t able to actually foster themselves. This small way of helping (for them) can be a big benefit for you and connect you with additional community resources.
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Ask other foster parents or respite providers. While respite is not intended for visits, other licensed providers can easily turn in mileage reimbursement requests because they already have a contract. Plus having a regular relationship with a respite provider is a good thing, right?
Obviously, this is not an all-inclusive list, we would love to hear about your creative ideas for navigating visit transportation roadblocks.
Kathy Haddock is a Foster Parent Training specialist for KVC, Community CARE Coordinator for the Coalition of Charities, Co-Chair of the Southwest Regional Board for Foster and Adoptive Parents, Foster Care Ambassador, Trust Based Relational Interventions Practitioner, Cultivate Connections Practitioner, and a Stewards for Children Facilitator. She is also mom to 3 adult-sized teenagers adopted from Foster Care in Missouri.
Service Delivery Grievance
We want to ensure that our foster parents are aware of their grievance processes. In this edition of the newsletter, we will focus on the Service Delivery Grievance.
Service Delivery Grievance Process (CS-131)
The Service Delivery Grievance process is the process for families to express concerns of perceived inequities, unfair treatment, or dissatisfaction with agency actions or behaviors, not covered by other grievance procedures. Any resource provider may file a grievance with the exception of resource providers who work with contracted agencies to provide care. These resource providers must utilize the process outlined by the contracted foster care case management agency.
Trainings & Events
Right Time Trainings
You now have access to what is called National Training Development Curriculum (NTDC) Right Time Trainings. There are 15 trainings and they are all 1 hour long. There is a different topic for each training. Some of the examples include Building Children’s Resilience, Building Parental Resilience, Family Dynamics, Managing Placement Transitions, Responding to Children in Crisis, and Sexual Trauma. We will highlight each of these trainings in this newsletter.
This month we are highlighting the training called Building Children’s Resilience. This theme helps parents who are fostering and adopting understand concepts and definitions related to enhancing the resilience of children who have experienced trauma, separation, or loss. Protective factors are described along with strategies on how to build upon these factors to support children develop their identity, self-esteem, and skills toward self-advocacy. You may find these trainings through the Training page for Foster Parents.
 Ever feel like you just need a RECESS? Remember that sweet time when you got to put your pencil down, leave your work behind and head for the playground? We invite you to "Come Out to Play" at RE: Conference, February 2-3, 2024.
We have a lot in store for you this year, but here are a few highlights:
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Kondo Simfukwe is returning! Kondo's amazing delivery touched everyone in attendance last year and several were asking for his return even before he was finished.
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Robyn Gobbel - highly sought after therapist, podcast host and author of "Raising Kids with Big, Baffling, Behaviors." She will join us Friday and will also do a full-day Pre-Conference Workshop on Thursday!
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Stephanie Fast - international adoptee and author of "She is Mine"
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Mike Goodwin will be our comedian this year. He was featured on America's Got Talent in 2021.
- A new Friday night marriage seminar, "Real Encouragement for Couples," brought to us by Ken Howard - one of our most requested breakout speakers! This is an optional add-on.
- Pampering and more pampering.... and of course, NO WAY gifts! Over $24K worth was given out in 2023.
Look for more exciting speaker and breakout information to be released soon on our conference website.
Follow along on our Facebook page and Instagram. Be sure to share these with others in your foster/adoption/kinship circles and bring them along.
LGBTQ+ Trainings
The Human Rights Campaign’s All Children - All Families has over 30 webinars on various LGBTQ+ inclusion topics you can watch when you have time.
Let's Talk Podcast
The “Let’s Talk” podcast series was launched in November 2021 as part of National Runaway Prevention Month. “Let’s Talk” is aimed at elevating the voices of young people as they share their stories and highlight the complexities and intersections that are witnessed by the 4.2 million young people experiencing homelessness across the United States each year. This podcast features discussions that may be triggering to our audiences, covering topics that include suicide, intimate partner violence, institutionalization, child sexual abuse material, gun violence, addiction, and various forms of discrimination. Listener discretion is advised!
2023 Annual In-Service Training Reminder
All licensed resource providers are required to complete the one hour annual in-service training for 2023: “The 4C’s of Healthy Sleep for Missouri Foster Resource Providers." (C170) The purpose of this training is to improve sleep education and child sleep health as one pathway to reduce or eliminate the need for psychotropic medications for sleep or daytime mood/behavior. Successful completion of training will require the licensed resource provider to pass the quiz with a score of 80% or more.
If you are a licensed resource provider, you can locate the training on our website. Scroll down to Annual In-service Training. When the training is complete, the licensed resource provider is required to:
- Obtain a screen shot of the quiz completion score
- Create an e-mail that includes their name, date and C170 code number
- Send the e-mail to their licensing worker
Resource providers who do not have access to the online training can request a paper copy from their licensing worker. This training must be completed by Friday, December 15, 2023.
The following links will take you to a multitude of training opportunities that are available for in-service hours:
Parent Cafe Training Institute (missouri.edu)
Foster Parent College - Online Training for Foster, Adoptive, and Kinship Parents and Caregivers
Training | Child Welfare Information Gateway
All Courses - FosterAdopt Connect Training (thinkific.com)
Family Development Training - Central Missouri Foster Care and Adoption Association
Foster Parent Identification Cards
All Foster Parents should have a Foster Parent ID card. This is provided to you after you are licensed. If you do not have an ID card please email FosterCare@dss.mo.gov and we will get you the application.
Emergency Contacts
Whenever you have a new child placed or a case manager change on a current placement, please make sure to have a conversation with the case manager about several things:
- Make sure to get their first/last name and contact info (phone/email) along with the same information for their supervisor.
- Discuss what is an emergency and what is something to be addressed the next business day. This may vary some depending on the case.
- Talk about what to do if an emergency occurs outside normal working hours (afterhours, holidays, weekends).
We want to hear from you! If there is information you would like covered in the next Foster Parent Connections Newsletters email, Melissa.J.Selsor@dss.mo.gov.
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