Did you know that there are over 16,000 children in foster care in Illinois? Foster care is a community effort to help children continue to grow in safe and stable environments until they are reunited with their families or are adopted.
With good foster parents and the right support, foster children grow up to be successful, happy and productive adults. Please join Volunteers of America of Illinois, faith-based leaders and other community leaders in making a difference in YOUR community and in the life of a child in foster care.
Foster parents provide temporary care to children who have been removed from their home due to abuse, neglect or dependency. These children are wards of the state. Foster parents act as parents to their foster child in nearly every respect. THey set rules of behavior at home, in school and in the community, register their foster child in school, attend parent/teacher conferences, take them to the doctor, provide consequences for inappropriate behavior, teach good hygiene and living skills, etc. Foster parents are also expected to work closely with the caseworker by allowing home visits from the caseworker and attend some meetings.
Volunteers of America of Illinois has provided child welfare services for over 100 years in communities in Illinois. We are recruiting additional families to become foster families. To ensure that children are placed in a secure, warm, friendly setting, VOA of IL requires the following standards for foster parents:
*The ability to love someone else's child
*The ability to provide security, understanding, acceptance and other qualities of parenthood
*The ability to accept agency supervision
*Be over 21 years of age, single or married
*Have no criminal background
*Have adequate space to provide a separate bed for each child. Children of the same sex may share a bedroom.
*Have sufficient financial resrouces to provide basic necessities for yourself and your own children.
*Complete, as a condition of licensure, a 30-hour DCFS pre-service training program.
*Perform all duties normally considered parental duties including school registration and conferences, medical and dental appointments, transportation for the child for visits with the family, court dates, community activities and other needs as they arise.
*Refrain from the use of corporal punishment in any form as means of disciplining a child in your home.
*Fully cooperate with the agency plan for the child, including goals of reunification with biological parents.
If you are interested in becoming a foster parent, know someone who might be interested in becoming a foster parent or would like to learn more about foster parenting, please contact:
Holly Houston,
Foster Parent Coordinator
312-564-2314 or
hschulz@voail.org.
