May is National Foster Care Month.
So we want to answer the question we often receive: What is foster care really about?
It's about families helping families.
Sometimes children cannot remain safely in their own homes. When that happens, other families are needed to care for these children, providing stability, housing and support for them.
Children and teens grow and develop best in a family setting. It is important to us they stay in their home community so they remain close to friends, relatives, school and community members.
When you partner with us and foster a child, you will make a difference by sharing your home and family experience.
What We Do
We place local children who are in need of a safe and stable home with supportive foster families in Lycoming County.
Children are matched as closely as possible with a foster family to make the foster care experience a positive one. Foster parent(s) are given as much information as possible and have the right to make the final decision on accepting a child into their home.
Support We Provide
You will have a caseworker assigned to each foster child placed in your home. Caseworkers coordinate services, access community resources, advocate for the needs of foster children, accompany resource parents to meetings and appointments for the child, and provide emotional support to foster parents as they provide care to children.
Caseworkers will meet at least monthly in your home with you and the child to provide support, address concerns, and discuss case planning. Caseworkers will also discuss the child’s progress in your home.
Lycoming Foster Care provides 24/7 crisis management to assist with emergencies within the home.
Foster parents receive yearly training to help meet the needs of the children they are providing care for. Resource parents are provided a tax free daily per diem rate to assist in the daily care of the child.
All children placed in resource care have medical insurance. Most children qualify for a medical access card. Those who do not have a medical access card typically have private insurance through their parents. Resource parents do not have any financial responsibility for any medical bills.
All children 0-5 years of age in resource care qualify for the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program to receive free nutritional food supplements, nutrition education and health screenings.
All foster children qualify for subsidized daycare, without consideration of the resource parents income as long as the resource parents meet the guidelines for the number of hours worked weekly.
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Learn more about our requirements to become a foster parent via our website at https://www.lycomingfostercare.org/requirements.