To understand the resource center, you first need to understand more about what foster care is all about. The primary goal of foster care is to protect children and strengthen families. Parents whose children are in foster care have 12 to 18 months from the time of their child’s removal to remedy their problems. During this time, the intent is to return children to the care of their biological parents. Foster parents play a key role in supporting and mentoring the birth family.
Many foster, adoptive and kinship families feel most comfortable with families who are similar to their own—families who can provide friendship, support, ideas and information about caring for their children. Without help, finding other foster/adoptive families to turn to for help can be a daunting and sometimes impossible task.
This is where the FCRC comes in. The Utah Foster Care Foundation (UFCF), the Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS), Utah Foster/Adoptive Family Association (UFAFA) and the adoption community work together to provide Cluster support groups to help foster/adoptive families find other families like their own.
A Cluster is a support group of approximately 15-50 foster, adoptive or kinship families (couples or singles) who organize to support the care giving experience. Each Cluster is facilitated by a foster/adoptive parent, who helps to organize the topic, location and other details each month.
Clusters provide foster/adoptive families with an avenue for emotional and social support, opportunities to earn In-service training hours, receive care-giving advice and assistance from other foster/adoptive families and access additional resources and information.
The Cache Foster Care Resource Center provides clothing, furniture and other assistance to cluster families as foster children go to and from their homes. As the ages and needs of incoming foster children will vary, what the foster families have on hand may or may not be what is required. The foster families can come to the resource center and pick up any items that the foster children need at any given time.
If you'd like to learn more about becoming a foster parent, please visit http://www.utahfostercare.org/
