Foster Care & Foster Parents

In Florida each year, there are 18,000 to 20,000 children who are not able to live at home or sleep in their own beds. Locally, there are more than 400. Where do these children go when they can no longer remain safely in their homes?

If there are no relatives able to care for them, then they are placed with a foster family. Foster families are special people — they open their hearts and homes to children in need of safety, love and nurturing, and, when the time is right, let them go again. What sets foster families apart is their ability to love a child like one of their own, regardless of whether the child lives with them for a month or for more than a year.

There is a critical shortage of foster homes throughout Okeechobee and the Treasure Coast. Too few homes means that we are forced to separate siblings, move children from their neighborhoods, school and home counties and sometimes out of the area altogether. In fact, we currently have more than 50 children living in different parts of the state simply because foster homes were not available for them locally.

Our goal is to recruit more quality foster parents and to better support the ones we already have.

We’re here to help you whether you’re just starting the process to foster or adopt. Click here to learn more about becoming a foster parent and upcoming classes.