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Resource
Families If you have approached an agency recently about becoming an adoptive parent you may have heard the term “resource family” and wondered exactly what a resource family is. A resource family is a family who provides a safe, stable and loving home for a child when the child’s birth parents are not able to provide one. Many different kinds of families may be seen as resource families by social service agencies. They include potential adoptive families, relatives who can provide kinship care, legal guardians, and both short-term and long-term foster parents. The concept of resource families is becoming more popular as some social service agencies are beginning to think more broadly about potential families and children’s needs. As they plan publicity to recruit families, these workers know that all kinds of families are needed. They reason that many of the same skills are required for parenting children who are separated from their birth parents temporarily as for those who are separated permanently. In fact, when a child comes into care the agency or child’s caseworker usually does not even know yet if the separation will be temporary or permanent. Instead of immediately dividing the families who contact them into different categories, these agencies consider all families to be resource families. Resource families may receive the same orientation and training, whether their goals are to become foster or adoptive parents. They may even be asked to be open to both possibilities until later in the process. Many agencies provide dual licensing, or foster-to-adopt programs. Instead of having a separate homestudy and approval process for adoptive parents and foster parents, there is only one process, which approves families for both. Other agencies may recruit resource families, but designate them as foster or adoptive families for the approval process. A family that is only interested in adoption and cannot consider foster care may now need to search a bit harder to find an agency, and may encounter fees. The ideal resource family would be comfortable being a foster family, including meeting the birth parents and working toward the child’s return to them, but would also be willing to become a permanent adoptive family if the need should arise.
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