Retaining families

The saying “you can’t recruit your way out of a foster parent retention issue” emphasizes that simply recruiting new foster parents is not an effective solution if your current, experienced foster parents are leaving. Serving as a foster, adoptive, or kinship family is a big decision, and the journey can be hard. Families have varying needs, from knowledge and skills to crisis management. Ensuring the families in your system feel well supported the moment they walk in the door and throughout their service is critical to their success and ongoing capacity to serve as a resource family and meet the needs of children and youth in their care. 

The resources on this page will help you learn about:

• Why and how to support adoptive, foster, and kinship families.
• Ways to support specific populations of resource families, including LGBTQIA2S+ families.
• Strategies for supporting peer support for families in tribal communities.