Foster care families substitute for biological families when children need protection as a result of abuse, abandonment or neglect.  Foster parents provide loving care, protection, encouragement, understanding, guidance, discipline, good nutrition, and respect to the children in their care.

Foster care is truly an essential service. Recent studies tell us that 40 percent of the children in foster care will remain in the foster care system for at least three years, and that less than half of the children are ultimately reunified with their birth families. With statistics like these, the important role our foster parents play in providing nurturing, highly stable homes becomes all the more commendable.

At SCFFAA, we promote a team approach to foster care involving the child, the foster parent, the agency social worker, the county, the birth parent when possible, and other helping professionals involved with the child. We assess the child, and initiate and implement all necessary interventions on behalf of the child, be it therapy, specialists or special education. Our goal is to maintain a stable placement for the child and to know that the foster parents adopt the child if a return to the birth family is not possible.

Benefits of being a Certified Foster Parent with SCFFAA

As a Southern California Foster Family and Adoption Agency foster parent you receive:

.	a generous, monthly, tax-free reimbursement;
.	free medical and dental care for your foster child with the use of a Medi-Cal card;
.	an attentive social worker who will visit regularly, provide counseling and resources for the care of the child, and assist with birth family visits;
.	rapid responsiveness whenever you need it;
.	pre-certification training and continuing education following certification;
.	respite child care payments;
.	an annual clothing grant for school aged children;
.	and most important of all, the love and trust of a child whom you will help to secure a better future.

What Makes SCFFAA Unique?

.	We view foster parents as part of a professional team where every team member is heard and respected.
.	We provide a supportive environment with consistent, knowledgeable assistance available from a highly experienced professional staff. Each foster child has an agency social worker, who serves as an advocate for the child and a resource for the foster parents.
.	We offer a rapid response to the family 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
.	We emphasize individualized care of each child so that the child's greatest potential is reached.
.	We provide special funding for the educational and recreational enrichment of our children, such as summer camps, sports team enrollment, and special music and dance classes.
.	We offer on-going seminars and educational opportunities for the foster parent, taught by experts.
.	We provide a support group for adolescents helping them to learn the skills that are necessary to live as independent adults
.	We encourage the documentation of the children's development and history.