Our Approach to Foster Care

OVP FAMILY approaches foster care with the understanding that every child who enters an outside home is experiencing the trauma of loss or grief, and perhaps the trauma of abuse, neglect, extreme poverty, or substance abuse. Even a newborn is experiencing loss due to separation from his or her birth parents.

Trauma-informed care is understanding how trauma impacts children’s lives, how it changes their needs, and how it impacts the services they will require. This approach requires education and training to understand how trauma affects someone physically, mentally, behaviorally, and socially. Trauma informed care can help children cope with and overcome the impact of trauma on their lives.

The goals of trauma-informed care include helping children find healing from the trauma while working to improve their social, emotional, and mental health.

A trauma-informed foster parent understands that children do not simply heal the moment they walk into a loving home. They will need trusted adults who are willing to understand their past, provide patience, give grace, and utilize available services to help them find the healing they need.