Foster Care

Resource Family Requirements

Examples of requirements to become a North Star Resource Parent include—

    • Must be 25 years or older
    • Must pass a criminal background check for all adults in the home or frequently visiting
    • Possess a valid California Driver License
    • Must be Financially self-reliant
    • Must pass a Health Exam
    • Must be Drug Free
    • Must complete and participate in trauma informed and agency trainings
    • A provide a safe, well-maintained home environment with rooms and a bed for children you are wanting to foster

North Star provides professional training and support for you to become an approved foster or adoptive parent. Foster children range from birth to 19 years of age and are referred to North Star by the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS). When it has been determined that a foster child cannot be reunified with his/her family, North Star works to ensure permanency for children by matching them with approved resource families.  The Foster Family Agency (FFA) program works to find safe loving foster homes for children while offering both the child and the foster parent a wide array of social, therapeutic, and supportive services.

North Star resource parents are loving, dedicated, responsible individuals and families who open their hearts and their homes to children. North Star welcomes the diversity of all families regardless of gender, race, age, marital status, ethnic background, or sexual orientation.

If you would like more information about becoming a resource or adoptive parent, we invite you to attend one of our monthly orientations where we can answer all of your questions. Please call our office for orientation dates and times.

(559) 226-2273
Download our training calendar

Core Competencies of a Resource Parent

As a North Star parent, you will be a part of an organization with very high standards and expertise in helping children in need. Children in foster care have been exposed to various forms of physical and emotional trauma. We want you to work with us to help these children. As a North Star parent, you might very well be the first person in their life to truly love and care for them.

Helping these children is not always easy, but you will have a skilled team of individuals to help you along the way. All our children have individualized plans to best serve the child. We work as a team to provide hope and healing to the children in our care. These children need loving and patient parents, and we ask that you consider becoming a child’s greatest hope.

What are our Core Competencies?

We focus on a set of five knowledge and skill sets:

Protect and nurture children

Children in foster care can come from difficult upbringings or situations and it’s your responsibility to help them along this difficult journey. This means keep the children safe and help them feel valued and respected.

Meet their developmental needs

Play with them, teach them social skills, help them go to school, learn through positive discipline, help them have a strong sense of their cultural identity, and provide medical care (which is paid for).

Support children’s relationships with their families

Help the children with their feelings about their birth families, whether children have some contact, no contact, or a lot of contact with them.

Connect children to safe, nurturing relationships intended to last a lifetime

Resource families (prepared to both foster and adopt) help children transition to birth parents, relatives, or other foster-adoptive parents. Many resource parents adopt, which means they will be providing the safe, nurturing lifetime relationship as the children grow up with them. If you are considering adoption, please know that all children placed with resource families who wish to adopt must, according to the law, be in family foster care status until after children’s parental rights are terminated.

Be a member of a professional team

Our social workers will be consulting with you on how to help us meet child welfare laws that require all of us to help children be safe, be well, and be connected to families where they can grow up safely and become contributing members of their communities.

On March 2013, North Star Family Center was licensed to provide extended foster care services. In California, Assembly Bill 12 (AB-12), known as the California Fostering Connection to Success Act, was signed into law in 2010. This bill extends eligibility to remain in foster care until the age of 21. The bill is designed to address the need for ongoing services to youth after the age of 18. In California, foster youth emancipated at the age of 18 were not prepared for the change outside of foster care and many did not have a stable living situation.

North Star Family Center recognized the need for the extension and updated its program statement to provide services to youth 18-21 years old. As part of the program, youth can remain with their resource families and services can be provided as they were prior to turning 18. This enables youth to enroll in college, seek employment, and make other transitions into adulthood supported through a continuum of support, services, and living stability. Youth eligible for this program will continue to receive mental health services, financial support, and—most importantly—a healthy and secure living situation.

Our agency has developed a training curriculum for resource families interested in providing a secure living situation for our youth. Training includes a review of regulations, youth development, resource parent expectations, and shared living agreements. North Star Family Center is dedicated to providing comprehensive support to help youth achieve a positive transition into adulthood. We want our youth to be prepared for success as they depart the foster care system.

North Star Family Center is searching for families who want to provide stability, guidance, and a healthy home for our foster youth. Our youth need you.

Intensive Services Foster Care (ISFC)

The ISFC Program is an alternative to group home or residential care. Children in this program usually have a history of self-destructive behavior, verbal and physical aggression, and other challenging behaviors. These issues often originate from extreme neglect, developmental complications, or physical/sexual abuse. ISFC offers a stable and supportive, family-based program for these children. Each child’s treatment is outcome-specific and involves intensive counseling, in-home and community-based services, education, behavioral instruction, and a comprehensive treatment plan. Our goal is to create a positive and successful environment in which the child can steadily develop and progress. ISFC parents must meet the regular resource parent requirements and also receive specialized training. ISFC parents receive a significantly higher stipend than regular resource parents for the additional time, challenges, and services needed to care for this population of children.