For so much of our history, Amara’s work has focused on supporting foster families as they parent children in foster care. Our foster caregivers are incredible. They do what sometimes seems impossible: they love children as their own while supporting their return home. And, if returning home is not possible, our families become amazing and open adoptive families.
As the the child welfare system has changed, so too has our response. There is an infinite combination of factors that can cause a family to come into contact with the child welfare system. We believe in meeting families where they are. But to do this well, we needed to add tools to our toolbelt. We needed to be able to offer supports that are tailored to the unique needs of everyone in the family constellation, kids included.
So now, in addition to our work with foster families as they provide safe and loving homes to children for as long as they need, our work includes:
- Resources for families to prevent crises so that things like poverty and other daily struggles alone don’t lead to the removal of children
- Peer support for parents as they navigate systems so they can stabilize and safely parent their kids
- Support to kinship caregivers so that when possible, kids entering foster care stay within their family of origin
- Programming for kids and youth themselves, so they kids know they are not alone in their experiences, that they can own their stories, and so they can heal
- And finally a relentless focus on changing policies and practices so that we can keep families whole and communities strong.
Learn more about our work, and the why behind it, in our newest video.