Foster Village North Texas

FOSTER VILLAGE BRIDGES THE GAP.

Foster parents often feel tired and alone. Most families foster for less than a year, citing burnout and lack of support as the reason they stop. At the same time, 85% of people who are not foster parents say they care about vulnerable children and want to help.

Foster Village bridges this gap between foster families and caregivers and those who want to help, meeting practical needs and providing holistic support beyond the system.

EQUIP
+ Welcome Packs
When a child is removed from their biological parents and placed in foster or kinship care, they are often placed with little to no tangible items. We provide each child we serve with a bag filled with 7-10 outfits, new pajamas, new socks, new underpants, toiletries, a Bible, and comfort items. We strive to ensure that every item we provide to a child makes them feel seen, loved, and cared for in a dignified manner.

+ Car Seats
We believe every child deserves to be safe, so we are proud to provide car seats to families taking placement of small children with an appropriately sized safety seat.

+ Beds
Sometimes a bed is all that's keeping a child from being able to stay in a particular home -- whether that is with their parents, in a foster home, or with relatives. We often provide beds to these families, especially if that means we can keep kids together.

+ Project SOOTHe
Research has shown that children who go through the foster care system are at significantly higher risk of emotional and physical health issues such as depression, anxiety, ADHD, PTSD, speech and motor delays. The lasting effects of trauma and neglect can impact a child's overall health, relationships, and ability to thrive in a healthy home. Recent studies have made a correlation between these types of risk factors and the benefits of calming the central nervous system and sensory system through non-invasive therapeutic objects. Items such as weighted blankets, swings, Sit N Spins, white noise machines, swaddle blankets, and ergonomic infant carriers have been shown to help little bodies process and integrate stress and incoming stimuli, in turn, increasing the body's release of serotonin (the body's chemical most responsible for maintaining mood balance).

The goal of Project SOOTHe is to make these tools available to children in foster care who would not otherwise have the resources to get them. By partnering with foster families, therapists, and Child Protective Services we have the ability to bring these non-invasive therapeutic objects to the children who need them most.

CONNECT
+ Foster Parent Training
Through working with a team of private agencies, Foster Village North Texas has been given the opportunity to provide foster parent training to local foster families, in turn more than doubling the amount of local foster families to serve children from our own community.

+ Foster Parent Support
Foster Village North Texas knows that to keep families fostering, they must feel support from their community and support from other foster parents. Foster Village has opened our doors to provide monthly foster parent support meet-ups where families who are walking the same road can come together to feel loved and supported and make sure they know they aren't alone in this journey of parenting kids from hard places.

+ Family Room
We offer a space in our facility for biological parents to meet with their children during supervised visitation with CPS. The room features a holistic space focusing on connection between parent and child.

ADVOCATE
+ADVOCATING FOR CHANGE IN THE SYSTEM

There is a lot of misinformation and confusion surrounding children in foster care, the foster parents and relatives who care for them, and the biological parents who are working to reunify with their kids. 

Foster Village brings dignity to the children and families we serve, understanding the root causes of why a child ends up in the foster care system, facilitating relationships between foster families and biological families and replicating communities of support around the nation. As part of our effort to build “community beyond the system,” we present honest and accurate information about our vulnerable neighbors, the challenges they face and the need for a supportive community.

When churches, companies and individuals come alongside those involved in the child welfare system, something beautiful happens: all parties are changed for the better.