Foster care should be a support for families, not a substitute for parents. Shared parenting can help us make this vision of foster care a reality. In shared parenting, resource parents cultivate positive, supportive relationships with birth parents, giving them more opportunities to strengthen their ability to care safely for their children, reducing the trauma of separation, and increasing the likelihood of reunification. This issue of Fostering Perspectives explores, celebrates, and promotes shared parenting with articles such as:
- Supporting families during a pandemic
- Talking to children and youth about shared parenting
- Building a positive relationship with birth parents
- Shared parenting when there’s a concern about safety
- How shared parenting looks for older teens and young adults in foster care
- Why shared parenting can be complicated for kin caregivers
- Advice from foster care alumni about shared parenting
- And much more
This issue also features essays from youth in care, news from FFA-NC (our statewide foster parent association), and profiles of children and youth seeking permanence through adoption. To read this issue, go to http://fosteringperspectives.org/.
Fostering Perspectives is sponsored by the NC Division of Social Services and produced by the Family and Children’s Resource Program, part of the UNC School of Social Work.
SOURCE: The Family and Children’s Resource Program, School of Social Work, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
