Prospective parents go through training, which includes a background check. Foster and adoptive families receive services and stipends through foster care, adoption and post-adoption. From there, families will be referred to the agency that can best meet their needs. The Salvation Army, Toomey Residential and Community Services, Dunbar Association Family Find Program and Liberty Resources. Foster and adoptive homes are needed for children of all ethnic backgrounds and ages, especially teens.
Some children have physical, mental or emotional disabilities.
Others need supervision for juvenile offenses. Some have siblings who need to find a home together. Mary and Dale King, parents to eight adopted children, stress that prospective parents can't expect a perfect child and can't be afraid of labels or disabilities. They suggest that couples considering foster care need a strong relationship and support of their extended family. But, they don't need to know it all.