The Children’s Bureau is seeking foster families during National Foster Parent Appreciation Month and is now offering two virtual ways for individuals and couples to learn how to help children in foster care while reunifying with birth families or how to provide legal permanency by adoption.

A live Zoom Orientation is scheduled for May 20 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m hosted by a Children’s Bureau team member and a foster parent.

For those who want to learn at their own pace about becoming a foster and/or fost-adopt parent, a PowerPoint orientation is also available.

To R.S.V.P. for the live orientation or to request the PowerPoint orientation, please email rfrecruitment@all4kids.org.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Children’s Bureau has canceled all in-person foster care and adoption resource parent orientations. 

The current health crisis has accelerated the need for foster and foster-adoptive parents to help local at-risk youth stay in their communities.

In Los Angeles County alone, the foster care population exceeds 21,000 children with 200 of those foster children waiting for an adoptive family.

Many of these children are siblings in need of families who are willing and able to keep them together.

In fact, Children’s Bureau turns away at least 10 sibling sets weekly due to lack of families. Older children are also in need of families.

“My husband and I feel that fostering to adopt is our calling. We are here to help those who need it most; the children that need loving homes and the parents that need help raising their children,” shared A.J.’s foster mother. Read more about A.J.’s story here.

She and her husband welcomed A.J. into their home when he was just a week old and cared for him until he reunited with his birth mother at 16 months.

“We were so scared that we would do something wrong, but with all the training and support from Children’s Bureau, we knew we had the tools we needed.”

The Children’s Bureau welcomes every individual regardless of race, age, religion, disability, marital status, ethnic background, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression to become a resource for children.

Qualifying families receive training and support throughout their journey.

For questions and/or to get started, call 800-730-3933 or click here to complete a quick inquiry form.

About: Since 1904, Children’s Bureau has been a nonprofit leader in protecting vulnerable children through prevention, treatment and advocacy. The agency helps 50,000 at-risk children and parents each year throughout Los Angeles and Orange Counties with services that include school readiness, parenting classes, family resource centers, support groups, mental health counseling, foster care and foster-adoption and more. Foster Care and Adoption Programs are available in Kern, Orange, San Bernardino, and Los Angeles counties. To learn more about the agency and/or its foster care and adoption program, visit all4kids.org.