Foster Parents are Urgently Needed Across South Carolina
Please scroll to complete a foster parent inquiry form. By submitting a form, there is no obligation, just an opportunity for you to connect with us and learn more about one of the most rewarding roles you can have in life.
You can also read below to learn more about foster care, find links about additional services SCYAP provides to youth, and hear from some of our phenomenal foster parents.
Foster parents are essential across South Carolina, and the need for compassionate individuals has never been greater. By filling out a foster parent inquiry form, you’re taking the first, obligation-free step toward learning how you can support children in need.
Children enter foster care after facing abuse, neglect, or other hardships, often experiencing fear, anxiety, and loss. Becoming a foster parent can be challenging but immensely rewarding, offering children the stability they deserve.
SCYAP provides foster families with twice-monthly, tax-free reimbursements, helping to support each child’s unique needs. Submit an inquiry today to learn more about how you can make a difference.
Attend a Monthly Foster Parent Information Session:
Sadly, there is a shortage of people expressing interest in becoming foster parents. We need more loving people like you to help children to have a safe and loving home where they can heal and thrive.
Foster Parents Are Very Special People
Foster parents are very special people. They bring children in need into their homes and into their hearts for days, months, or years and sometimes permanently. Foster parents provide a combination of hard work and heart work. Through the giving of time, energy, love, guidance, and patience, foster parents make a difference in the lives of the children and families in need.
Therapeutic Foster Care
Therapeutic Foster Care serves children and youth who have complex needs (emotional, behavioral, psychological, developmental, and/or medical) and require a higher level of intervention, supervision, structure and support than those served through traditional foster care. Therapeutic Foster care placements keep children and youth out of in-patient hospitals, residential treatment programs and group homes.
Foster parents seeking to provide therapeutic services must complete specialized pre-service and on-going training so that the needs of the children and youth in this specialized service can be met. In Therapeutic Foster Care, SCYAP assigns a caseworker (we call them Treatment Coordinators) to each foster parent/home to provide support, guidance and training and to assist with care coordination. Foster parents serving children in Therapeutic Foster Care become part of the child/youth’s treatment team and provide treatment services/interventions (such as skill building and behavior management). Because the needs of the children and youth in therapeutic foster care are greater and the expectations of the foster parent are higher, the daily per diem paid to the foster parent is higher than that of traditional foster care.
Traditional Foster Care
The SCYAP Traditional Foster Care Program is a collaborative program between SCYAP and the South Carolina Department of Social Services (DSS).
Through this program SCYAP provides placement services to children in foster care who need a safe and nurturing placement while they are in out of home placement, but do not require the intensity of therapeutic services.
Just as with Therapeutic Foster Care, SCYAP assigns a caseworker (we call them Treatment Coordinators) to the foster parent/home to provide support, guidance and training and to assist with care coordination.
Family Support Services
The purpose of Family Support Services (FS) is to enable the family or caregiver (parent, guardian, custodian or person(s) serving in a caregiver role) to serve as a knowledgeable member of the youth’s treatment team and to develop and/or improve the ability of the family or caregiver to appropriately care for the youth. This service includes providing guidance to the family or caregiver on navigating systems that support youth with behavioral health or other special needs, and fostering empowerment of the family or caregiver through supportive guidance, encouragement and modeling.
Family Support is intended to:
Equip families with coping skills to counteract the stress of dealing with the youth’s behavioral health and/or other special needs; Teach families to deal with a crisis situation; Teach families to coordinate effectively with other community service provider(s); Provide families with the knowledge and that will allow them to be an integral and active part of the youth’s treatment team; Teach families to advocate effectively for the youth; Alleviate the burden of stigma that families with youth who have behavioral health or other special needs often experience; and Reduce family isolation by connecting them with behavioral health advocacy and support networks.