INUVIK
More foster families are needed to help give children a better chance of a suitable match so they can find success, according to the region's foster care co-ordinator.

Nicole Garbutt, left, logistical co-ordinator for the NWT Foster Family Coalition, and executive director Tammy Roberts were in Inuvik last weekend to work with foster families and the region's social services staff. Roberts said they are working to educate potential and current foster parents to provide better options for placement if a child may require foster care. - Andrew Livingstone/NNSL photo

Darlene Koe, child and family placement co-ordinator for the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority, said the need for foster parents in Inuvik - and across the Beaufort-Delta - is urgent.

"We can go from having lots of families to no families very quickly," she said, adding a big priority is the need for emergency, short-term foster options. "We're child protectors and it is our job to make sure kids have a place to grow up."

Koe said finding quality homes, or parents with specialized support to help children dealing with trauma or special needs, is more of a challenge than just finding homes where foster children in short or long-term situations can live.

Without more families available, Tammy Roberts, executive director of the Foster Family Coalition said it makes it difficult to pair children up with the right families.

"The biggest issue is that children that have been removed from their family of origin, they're grieving," she said. "Parents go through all of these emotions with the kids. So you're also providing support to them, helping them understand their situation and helping them understand their family situation. It's a lot more than a bed and breakfast."

With this challenge comes the potential for a mismatch that would make it more difficult for a child to succeed in a foster family setting, hence the use of the Parenting Resources for Information, Development and Education (PRIDE) program to bridge the gap between initial intake of children and once they are placed in foster care.

"Taking in other people's children and caring for them is not like caring for your own children," she said. "PRIDE training helps people see the difference and understand what fostering is about.

"It's very challenging and the kids coming into care have more and more issues they are dealing with. A lot of people go into fostering with the idea that you're rescuing the kids and it's mainly to be temporary and the role is reunification."

The coalition works in partnership with the regional social services authorities and the Department of Health and Social Services to broaden the adoption and foster care network with the goal of continually strengthening the foster care system across the territory.

"It gives parents a better idea of what's involved and it informs them about what the expectations are," said Koe.

Used as the North American standard for foster care and adoption, PRIDE is designed to strengthen the quality of services available to families.

"PRIDE is based on teamwork, so working with Social Services and working with the birth family to ensure kids are well-rounded and all of their needs are met," Roberts said. "So it gives you the tools to understand where families are coming from and understanding the importance of families to children and why we need to keep those ties really strong."

The program is important so parents are able to feel more confident in helping children deal with their feelings, said Roberts. If there are no training and guidelines in place for foster parents "they tend to go off doing what they feel is the best for the kids and that might not necessarily be what's best," she added.

"Social Services is very crisis oriented and short on staff and social workers, so there is not a lot of support for the foster parents in giving them direction on how to properly care."

Roberts played a role in the development of the new online training program for PRIDE, and said the coalition is working with the Department of Health and Social Services to bring the online training to the territory. She said the Internet-based training will help set the expectations of what it means to be a foster parents.

"It's something we can tailor to be more Northern," she said, adding the program talks about culture and traditions in a universal manner. "It's essentially a portal we would have access to and people who are interested in fostering could log on and take the training at their own speed and if they choose to apply to foster after, they would be so much better prepared for taking the kids in."

Giving parents this support is accomplished by providing a standardized, consistent, structured framework for the competency-based recruitment, preparation, and selection of foster parents and adoptive parents, and for foster parent in-service training and ongoing professional development.

The program is designed to provide support, knowledge and skills in protecting and nurturing children, meeting a child's developmental needs and addressing any delays, relationship support for children and families, connecting children to relationships intended to last a lifetime, and working as a member of a professional team with social workers and social service providers.

By working within these boundaries, the coalition is able to help create a foundation of competent and prepared foster families in the community, said Roberts.

"There's going to be better services for the kids. If parents are educated, the kids will get a better outcome in the end."