What is Foster Care?

Foster care parents, social workers and former foster care children share their experiences in the system. They explain the role of foster care parents and give reasons on why foster care parents are so important.

Judith Shagrin, Assistant Director, Baltimore County Department of Social Services
Sam Macer, Foster Care Parent / PTA Leader
Emily Bloomfield, Founder, Monument Academy

[mambort]

i was researching about foster homes and i stumbled on this video and read the comments. i am so sorry to those who didn't have a positive experience under foster care. my mom was a teacher and she would take in students who had difficulty learning how to read and teach them at home during vacations. she would take in take in relatives who cannot afford to go to school and and help them finish high school or vocational courses. we all got along, my mom never hurt us, but we all agreed that my mom talks a lot. to everyone, stay strong. look for somebody you can talk to and share your burden.

[breemalorrey]

Foster kids thought on care: it sucks. Separated from my siblings, never seeing my mom, moved around so much i didn't want to unpack my trash bag. But in the end it gave my mom the time (3 years) to get over her addictions, get a stable job, and a home (we were living in a motel) for me and my 4 other siblings. I've only been home for 6 months, but I feel good and I don't think I will ever be going back into care.

[addsonco]

My mom works as a social worker in foster care. Everyone should care about foster care ❤

[gracelowe]

I'm eleven I've been Foster care since six years old.

[thurston]

I just learned my mom tried sending me to a foster family without me knowing .... she doesn’t know I know what she tried. I’m just shocked she would do this to me

and it hurts so bad.

[isabelatur]

I've been in foster care when i was 11 years old and my older brother died in a car accident when I was in foster care i cried but im with my family my older brother died in September 3rd 2016😭😭😢 i miss him so much after school i hear him every day

[ebonystreet]

I've been in foster care since I was 5

[blkaac]

To think that I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for my beloved grandparents that took my mother in from the foster care I wouldn’t be her today amazes me

[GamerMuzza]

I was born took away from parents for 2 years got adopted. 8 years with adoptive parents back into foster care 18 months! Went back to adoptive family now I'm back in foster care again and I'm never going back home! I want someone to talk to my life is fucked up

[jennikifm]

How do kids get adopted? Just curious how it all works. Also how does the receptionist talk and to who?
Just researching this stuff for a story I'm doing. :)

[Colhogan]

Needing to be a well balanced person to be a foster parent is very true! I am now 61 yrs old but when I was very young I spent 3 yrs in a foster home, until I was 8 yrs old. My 2 brothers and sister were also in foster homes. My younger brother by far had a terrible foster parent. When I say terrible, I can say that is actually being nice. The way the world is today, I believe my brothers foster father would have been put in jail. He was so abusive to my brother that my grandparents went there and took him out. He is 59 yrs old today and I can say, that experience totally messed him up. I was very shocked when he told me some of the things that guy did. There was a picture of him with 2 black eyes, I think my grandparents took the picture as proof. The guy claimed he fell off his bike. I think that was the final straw. My brother at that time couldn't have been more than 4 or 5 and he certainly didn't have any bike they gave him. I was very lucky. I was placed with a more elderly couple who were really very nice to me. I couldn't have asked for a better home. My older brother had it a little difficult because he was on a farm and they only wanted to foster kids so they had more help. My sister probably had the second best place, although they were very strict with her. More so than their own kids. My sister said she had to go to a friend's just to get to watch TV. That being said, for her it was pretty minor stuff in comparison to my two brothers. I am glad my Dad got things together in order to take us all out of the homes. You never realize how much a step parent deals with when your a kid. We always thought our stepmother was well not so nice. But I became a stepfather to 3 kids back in 1996 and I can say I now appreciate the magnitude of what she did, accepting my father with 4 kids. Granted, there were times when she was over the top, but nothing really terrible. In fact more comical than anything else. I promised myself I would make sure the 3 step kids I had would be treated good. My stepdaughter was pretty evil to me, but I stuck it out and when she got older she apologized to me in the best way she could. I even got to give her away at her wedding, so I figure I did OK. I think I've done pretty good. We all get along real well. Granted the kids are grown and on their own, but we have wonderful grandkids that we see very often and it's really nice!

[paradoxctyl]

i live in foster care this is nothing like it
I went into it when i was 3 and i have ran away from every family when i was five i was wiped so this is nothing like it.

[christinaluvs]

I'm in Foster care and its hard but kind of sad that I have to leave my family

[MelissaBrownapt]

Consider training non-violent, non-sex offender ex-cons to run foster care homes. They face chronic unemployment and if there crimes did not endanger human beings, then why not make the most of their willingness to work, after they receive adequate training or orientation.

Success would be indicated if the work took them to a town far removed from the towns in which they fell into bad company.

Obviously, interviews and screening would be necessary, but that should be the case anyway. You can utilize a variety of tests from industrial psychology that look at personality.

I've thought about signing up, but I don't think I have the heart anymore and I don't have a car anymore, nor do I want to look like someone that has had a child out of wedlock, despite that the fact that no one cares anymore. I do.

And the stigma growing up with a single Mother, certainly bothered me. I'm over it, but don't want to relive it as the one who fill the statisitic

[Chloe-bwtm]

Not in all cases foster care is good, when I was 7 my foster parents sucked. I'm going back into foster care now 13 years old now almost 14 I'm gonna go

[ashleytucker]

I have a 4 year old niece we got legal cosdody of her through Dss.because my sister was not fit for a parent.our caseworker told us she can't leave without our supervision.

[fmstori]

Hello I just Published My Book about my 17 year Foster Care Journey Called Fostered. May I have permission to use this video on my FB Page?

[mda]

My heart breaks hearing a lot of foster children’s stories on here. I can’t comprehend how why anyone would go through the trouble of fostering a child only to treat them bad. I am so sorry if you are or were one of them.. I’m a single mother to a six year old boy whom is my world. I’ve been wanting another child and my son asked me for a sibling recently. I love children and I’m ecstatic to foster a child in the near future.. I want to love on that child and make him a part of my little family ( me, my son and our dog). Maybe this is what god wants for us..

[Animeboy-lrtc]

I’m in foster care been in for 4 years now

[SurvivorOfChildAbuse]

I’m about to be 18 I was in the foster care system from 14 to 16 and a half almost a year and a half in the system. I do not wish the foster care system on my worst enemy. The foster care systems is full of bad I was in 22 homes 18 of which I was abused in, denied basics like food, water, showers and more. We are take from a bad home to be put into a corrupt and abusive system that does not care one bit about the kids in their care the only ones they care about are the ones outside the system they want to put in it.