Korean Foster Family Initiative
Each year, nearly 800,000 children are temporarily removed from their parents’ care for reasons ranging from neglect and abandonment to abuse. In contrast, there are roughly 240,000 foster families to care for them. These children are heroes, survivors of abandonment, abuse and neglect and in dire need of loving and caring homes. Specifically, we have Korean-American children in the Los Angeles County Foster care system, but there remains no actively licensed foster families of Korean descent in the LA county to serve as a match. Because of the fact that children of immigrant households often do not learn English until they start Kindergarten or perhaps even later, it is imperative that they are placed in Korean homes. Being placed in non-ethnic specific foster families that lack knowledge about the children’s language, food or culture can compound the existing anxiety, confusion and trauma.
In response, KFAM started the Korean Foster Family Initiative (KFFI) campaign to bring awareness of this deficit and ultimately recruit Korean families to become licensed foster care providers through Los Angeles County DCFS (Department of Children and Family Services).
Contact: 1-844-K-FAMILY (1-844-532-6459) Estee Song, Project Manager
What is a Foster Parent?
A Foster Parent is someone that provides a temporary safe, stable, and loving home for a child or children and helps them reunite with their birth parents or family member when the family problems have been resolved.
Who Can Become a Foster Parent?
Becoming a Foster Parent requires flexibility, a good sense of humor, a willingness to grow and learn, but most of all a commitment to provide a safe, stable, nurturing, and loving home for a child.
• You can be single, married, divorced, or living with a partner. Further, you can live in an apartment or house and either rent or own.
• There is no minimum income, however you must be able to support yourself, and provide a safe and stable home.
• You can still work. For working parents, appropriate childcare arrangements need to be made.
• You can be of any race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or culture – all of which can be the same or different as the child you want to parent.
• You may reside anywhere to adopt a child from Los Angeles County. If you do reside in Los Angeles County we offer classes throughout the county and a full Family Assessment at no cost to you regardless of whether you choose to foster or adopt.
This is a Big Responsibility!
What Type of Help is There for Me?
Personal Support
Your social worker will prepare, train, and support you through this process, and connect you with community resources that you might need. If you choose to adopt a child, post-adoptive services are available to all adoptive families.
Financial and Medical Assistance
Whether you foster or adopt, the child you care for will receive medical and dental coverage. Further, you will receive monthly financial support until the child is 18 and sometimes longer. If a child has special mental health and/or medical needs, increased foster care and adoption assistance payments are available.
Anything Else I Should Know?
There is no fee to become a Resource Parent (Foster and/or Adoptive Parent). With a completed application, it takes from 4-6 months to go through the process; but remember everyone’s situation is different and therefore timeframes will vary. Once you are approved to have a child in your home, the type of child that you want to parent will affect how quickly a child can be placed with you.
How Can I Learn More?
Questions & Answers provided by Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services. If you would like more information about becoming a foster parent, please do not hesitate to contact us.
