Marin County Health and Human Services is looking for people who want to help families with foster children as “Friends of the Family.”
The Friends of the Family program links generous community members to foster families that need extra support. Any adult can volunteer with the program after going through an approval process.
“We’ve found that the level of support a resource (foster) family receives directly correlates to their success in fostering children and their retention as a resource family,” Health and Human Services child welfare worker Leslie Fields said. “Many resource families have told us they could do more if they had a bigger support network,” Fields said.
A screened Friend of the Family member can help with transportation, provide bought or prepared meals during times of transition or donate goods and services. Volunteers receive training and support from social workers within the foster care system.
Marin County averages 80 children in out-of-home care also known as foster care, and nearly two-dozen of them are placed in homes outside the county — sometimes several hundred miles away, the Department of Health and Human Services said. The HHS’s Children and Family Services Division seeks local homes to help young people return to their own community.
Applicants to the Friends of the Family program will work with Children and Family Services and the Marin County Volunteer Program to become an approved Friend of the Family. Some applicants will require a background check and an interview with a social worker depending on their level of involvement with the foster family. For information and an application visit FosterourFutureMarin.org.