What is Foster Care?
Being a foster parent means temporarily caring for and nurturing many children over time. It also means working as a partner, both with the agency and birth parents, in order to help reunify a child with their biological family after the issues which caused the child to be placed into foster care are resolved.
What is Adoption?
Being an adoptive parent means making a permanent lifetime commitment to a child who was unable to be reunified with their birth family. Adoption is rewarding for adoptive parents, and provides children an opportunity to grow up in a loving and supportive environment.
What can I do to help?
Many children are in need of foster (temporary) and adoptive (permanent) homes. Consider what fits best with your family.
What are the kids like?
Children and youth who have been abused, neglected, and/or abandoned. They are children and youth ranging in age from 0-22 years of all ethnic, cultural, and racial backgrounds. Siblings groups who need to be placed in the same foster or adoptive home, or who are not placed together but need to have regular contact with each other as well as children and youth with disabilities and special needs, including, but not limited to psychological, medical, and physical diagnoses.
What are the Requirements?
You have to be able to provide a child with a safe, nurturing, and stable environment; meet background check requirements; be financially stable; complete an application; attend pre-service training as well as ongoing supportive training; participate in a comprehensive home study; and meet other requirements applicable to the type of care you want to provide.
How Do I Get Started?
Attending an Informational Meeting is the next step to becoming a foster or adoptive parent. The purpose of this meeting is to provide you with more information about both the children in our care and the home verification/approval process and how you can partner with Azleway. During the meeting, you will also have an opportunity to ask any questions you may have.
Contact your regional office for more information.
I am certain you will have tons of questions throughout this journey. We are here to help! Azleway looks forward to partnering with you on this journey!
Please feel free to contact me, Matt Patton, with any questions. To RSVP for one of our informational meetings you can call 903) 566-8444 ,ext. 2262 or email Matt.Patton@azleway.org
