Foster Care and Adoption Services
Imagine losing your home, family, and your job all in one day. This is the trauma that a child who is placed in foster care experiences every time they move At GATEWAYS we strive to minimize the amount of disruptions in placement that a child experiences in foster care. Every child needs and deserves a safe, nurturing and stable environment.
In recent years, the number of foster homes has decreased, while the number of children needing foster care has increased dramatically. In order to meet the needs of the children in our state, we must recruit more people who are willing to share their heart and their homes with a child or even brothers and sisters who would otherwise be separated from each other in their time of crisis.
At GATEWAYS for Youth and Families, we license these people to become foster parents, identify children who will flourish in their care and then provide the foster family with services to support them and the children placed in their homes. People of diverse backgrounds, ages and lifestyles can become foster parents. The professional staff at GATEWAYS helps them to navigate the social services application process, explain the documents and provide education and assistance to become licensed. If you are interested in learning more about becoming a foster parent, please read the information in our Foster Care Recruitment Guide. Become a Foster Parent.
We do more than merely license homes. Our foster care services program is tailored to meet the needs of the children we serve. The GATEWAYS therapeutic model [link to page] has grown from our hundred plus years of experience in working with displaced and traumatized children. The specially trained staff and facilities at the Ranch Youth Center are an asset to our BRS and regular foster care program, as well as to other agencies and foster parents in the community.
We handle foster-to-adopt cases for infants to teens, as well as permanent, long term or crisis placements for children who are not free for adoption. Because our emphasis is on the welfare, health and happiness of the child, we provide visitation and case aid services for those children whose parents are working hard to regain custody, so their children may return home to them. We also provide assessment care for teens with special needs that have not been previously diagnosed, in order to find appropriate permanent placement and allow the state to adopt planful decisions about their care.
Regular Foster Parent Reimbursement Rates by DSHS - $374 (infant) $451 (youth) $525 (teen) are augmented by services that GATEWAYS is able to provide at no additional cost to foster parents, such as educational assistance, clothing, shoes, school supplies, birthday presents, and other items that would otherwise be out-of-pocket or nonexistent.
GATEWAYS foster care program is linked to the community and designed to support the child and foster parents in every way. We work with organizations like FPAWS and the state provider networks to identify and improve services statewide and with community groups like Youth First, Lakewood’s Promise and Kids at Hope. Our program staff works as a close-knit team and is trained in the basics of our therapeutic model and cross-trained with the skills necessary to understand and assist in care and treatment in each program. Educational specialists and counselors from our youth development programs may be called upon to provide insight into ways to assist a family with a particular child’s needs. We use have professional internships and work-study programs that augment staffing of our programs, as well as provide valuable training and experience to college students entering the social services profession.
Please contact us at 253.383.4361 and ask to speak to our Foster Care Coordinator if you are interested in talking about becoming a foster parent, or helping our foster parents and children as a volunteer or a contributor to the Foster Parent Support Fund. If you are interested in reading more about foster parenting, please review our foster parent recruitment guide. Become a Foster Parent.