Foster parenting is very rewarding, but you must be someone who:

• Has the ability to offer strength and love to a child who may have special needs and challenges. 

• Possesses effective parenting skills. 

• Open to collaboration with OHU team.

• Will encourage the child to achieve their potential.

• Will work with the child’s biological parents to ensure their best interests are top priority. 

We’re looking for compassionate and sensitive individuals for this very important work. If you enjoy helping others, love children, and appreciate challenges, please consider working with us. Contact us today.

Foster children come from all communities. They are children who are abandoned, neglected, abused, or locked out of their homes and are dependent on the social service system to help them. We make every effort to place children in their own communities to reduce their disruption and encourage contact with their own families.

Foster children range in age from infancy to 18 years old and are from all cultural and ethnic backgrounds. They have often experienced lifelong impoverishment, family stress, and violence. Foster children may need counseling, special education, and medical care. 

Those in need of foster care have been adversely affected in many ways: emotionally, developmentally, physically, and educationally. They may be traumatized by the separation from their parents and their siblings. The most impactful foster parents seek to understand each child’s individual needs and are instrumental in helping shape the child’s future. 

Foster parents receive monthly financial support for each child in their home. The amount varies with the child’s age and level of need. Medical and dental care is covered by the state medical insurance plan.

Foster parents are individuals over 21, married or single, and come from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. They may have biological children, adopted children, or may never had children. Foster parents must also: 

• Be in good physical and mental health. 

• Meet state and local requirements for housing safety, have adequate space, and pass a background check. 

• Demonstrate a level of acceptance towards the birth parents of children in care. 

• Work cooperatively with the social work staff of the agency. 

• Be willing to participate in training to provide the best care. 

• Help a child move back to their biological home or a more permanent situation, if the permanency plan for the child is to return home. 

Below are some of the requirements to get you started: 

• Undergo a criminal background check, including being fingerprinted. 

• Complete an application packet. 

• Participate in interviews with agency staff. 

• Complete medical exams for all family members. 

• Complete pre-service training. 

• Attend ongoing training programs provided by One Hope United. 

• Be financially stable and able to maintain financial responsibilities in your home.