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• Who can foster?
• How to become a foster parent
• Children we foster
• Types of foster care placements
  • Emergency placements
  • Short term placements
  • Long term placements
  • Respite placements
  • Parent and child placements
  • Open custody placements
• Foster parents support
  • Social Workers
  • Child and Youth Counsellors
  • Education Liaison Officer
  • Therapist
• Foster parent training
• Fostering payments
• Contact us

Who can foster?

Foster parents are a diverse group of people from a wide range of backgrounds. However, the starting point for almost all of them is the realization that they could make a difference to the life of a child or youth in Canada.

Who can foster isn’t about your age, race, religion, sexual orientation, home ownership status or income. Who can foster with Key Assets Fostering is based upon your ability to provide a safe, caring and supportive environment for children and youth.

Fast facts about who can foster

1. You need to have suitable room available in your home for fostering a child or youth.
2. You need to be over the age of 21 years old (25 in NL) to foster
3. You need to be able to commit the time required to fostering (contact us to find out more)

Fostering families

Foster parents and their families do not fit into one mould but they do have some similarities. You should want to make a difference to a child who needs help, to be able to offer support and be prepared to invest unconditionally in children placed with you. You should also become advocates for the children you care for while providing a nurturing warm family environment.

We believe it is vital that other children and youth in the household are on board too; foster parents’ own children often contribute to a successful placement. Learn more about how fostering affects the family.

Does previous experience help?

It helps if applicants have previous fostering or related child care experience but more important to who can foster are the foster parents themselves; their personality, enthusiasm and their willingness to make a full-time commitment to fostering.

What qualities do I need to foster?

Ask yourself a few golden questions: Do you have the patience, commitment and understanding that fostering requires? Are you a flexible person who could adapt your expectations, cope with changes and make the best of things? How would you feel about caring for a child with challenging behaviour?

There is a useful self-quizzing exercise in our Fostering Matters PDF. (Available for download on the right hand side of this page).

You may also like to read Brenda’s Story as a real life foster parent.

Find out more

For more information about who can foster contact your local office today.