Open your heart and home to a child in need …

Foster care gives children a temporary home when their own parents cannot take care of them. Children in foster care live in safe, stable homes while their families participate in programs to help them overcome the issues that led to foster care placement. The goal is to return the child home safely. If that is not possible, a permanent home will be found.

Cardinal McCloskey Services contracts with over 425 certified foster parents to provide care to children placed in our Foster Boarding Home Program. We are looking for families in the Mott Haven, Hunts Point and Soundview sections of the Bronx and East Harlem in Manhattan, who feel that they have the love in their hearts to welcome into their home children who have suffered due to neglect or abuse. We needs foster families to care for children of all ages, but especially teenagers, teen moms and their babies and sibling groups.

Some foster parents care for children until their families are ready to take them home, and indeed help the families to learn better ways of parenting. Other foster parents adopt the children they care. Some foster parents help the teenagers in their care learn the life skills they will need to live independently when they age out of foster care. As a foster parent, you will receive training, social work support services and financial assistance based upon each child's needs.

1. Orientation Meetings

   The first step in becoming a foster parent is to attend an orientation meeting. These sessions are held monthly at our South Bronx Family Rehabilitation Center on Southern Boulevard in the Bronx. During the orientation you receive an overview of the foster parenting experience, description of the home study process and a review of the requirements for becoming a foster parent. These include, housing and income requirements as well as discussion of the expectations once children would be placed in your home. Applications are distributed at the end of these orientations if you wish to proceed.

2. Submitting an Application

   The application contains basic information to help us get to know you, your family and obtain the documentation necessary to support the application. All household members must be listed and information about school or work provided. Each school or work site will be asked to provide a reference. We will need the names of four personal references, two of whom we will speak with personally. You will need to provide information about previous foster care experience as well as a statement regarding the criminal history of all family members over 18.

3. The Home-Study Process

   MAPP Training - As an applicant you will be required to participate in a ten session, 30 hour training in Model Approaches to Partners in Parenting (MAPP). This training will help you learn more about the needs of children in foster care and the impact of the foster parenting experience on your family. Opportunities are presented for you to learn about the special needs of abused or neglected children and how these needs might manifest. MAPP is a process of self-selection to help families determine if they are ready for the challenges of accepting children in their home.

   The Home Study - During the 10 weeks that you are participating in the MAPP training, social workers will visit with you and your families to get to know the family as a whole and understand how prepared the family is to accept new children into your home. It is our responsibility to get to know every household member and to be assured that any child placed with you and your family will be a welcome addition. We will discuss family history, particularly as it relates to parenting experience and any history of abuse and/or neglect.

   During the home visits, we will also view the physical layout of your home. We will need to make sure that the home meets basic safety standards and that there is adequate sleeping and living space to accommodate the child(ren) requested. It is not required that children have their own rooms but they must have their own beds and there are regulations governing sleeping space.

   Also, during this period, we will be gathering the necessary documentation to support the application. References will be obtained and reference interviews conducted. Each family will be expected to provide verification of income and expenses and each family member must have a physical examination.

   At the end of the Home-study process, a written home study is completed. You will be given the opportunity to review and comment on the study. Your will be asked to sign the review before it is submitted.

   A required part of the Home Study process is completion of a clearance through the New York State Registry for Child Abuse and Maltreatment and a criminal history check. Each household member over the age of 18 must be fingerprinted. A criminal history may, but does not necessarily, disqualify a family from consideration as a foster family.

4. NYS Certification

   Once all documentation including the Home-study is submitted and reviewed, a decision is made regarding the certification of each applicant. If approved, the home becomes a NYS certified foster home. Once you are certified, we will be happy to welcome you as part of our Cardinal McCloskey Family. We will then contact you as soon as we have the right child for placement in your home.

   Annual Re-certification

   Each year your home must be re-certified. A Recertification Worker will visit your home to talk with you about your year as a foster parent with Cardinal McCloskey. This will provide an opportunity to look over the successes and challenges of the year gone by and evaluate the impact foster care has made on your family. Every two years, all family medicals must be updated.

Some children in foster care require more intensive care than others. These children are placed in our Therapeutic Foster Boarding Home Program because they are emotionally and behaviorally challenged by virtue of their histories of severe neglect and/or abuse. Often these children have had several failed foster care placements or are returning from a psychiatric or residential treatment placement. They are 7 to 17 years of age, mostly teens, who need loving, caring families who have an extra store of patience and tolerance for difficult behaviors.

If you are one of those extra special people and would like to become a foster parent in our Therapeutic Foster Boarding Home Program you must:

1. Be Certified as Foster Parent

   Follow the procedure outlined above.

2. Attend Additional Training

   An additional 15-hour training is required in The ABC's of In Home Problem Solving. This training program is offered in five sessions and is designed to help foster parents understand the antecedents of problem behaviors. The course offers concrete interventions for helping children to change these behaviors. Upon successful completion of this program, parents have learned the basic skills for caring for our high-needs children.

3. Placement

   All placements of children in the Therapeutic Foster Boarding Home program are carefully planned and coordinated. Before meeting a child, you will have the opportunity to express your preferences in terms of the age and sex of the child you would like to welcome into your home and to tell us what behavioral issues you feel comfortable taking on. When a child is considered an appropriate match by staff, you will be provided with all available information to review before making a commitment to the child. Once a child is considered a match, there will be a series of pre-placement visits to make the transition a smooth one for everyone involved. Only when the child, you and your family are comfortable with the match, is the placement made.

4. Extra Support Provided

   Once a child is placed in your home, a Behavioral Specialist will be assigned to work with you, your family and the child in your home. The Behavioral Specialist will visit your home on a weekly basis and go over the child's behavioral plan with you and talk about the interventions you used during the week. Together, you and the Behavioral Specialist will modify the plan as needed.