Some potential foster parents may feel discouraged or excluded before they even submit an inquiry. The way foster parenting is portrayed in marketing materials, forms, and the process can send unintended signals about who should (and shouldn't) be a foster parent.
Updating your recruitment materials, forms, and processes to reflect your community will help you recruit more diverse foster families and give you more good placement options.
How to do this
Check your forms, websites, posters, and brochures, and update as needed. Use representative photos and stories, ask for pronouns and preferred names, design forms that work for different household structures, and hire diverse staff. In marketing materials, show single parents, LGBTQ+ families, people of color, and people with different abilities. If faith is important to reflect in your community, be clear that LGBTQ+ families will not be excluded. Attestations of faith are often designed to exclude certain groups.
Focus on communities where you need more homes so children and youth can stay in their community. For example, if you need more homes for transgender teenagers, include transgender caregivers and LGBTQ+ stories. Review materials for inclusive case studies and examples, not just photographs.
Ask for pronouns and preferred names on your inquiry and application forms, and use them. Make it normal for everyone to share pronouns when meeting potential families at orientation or training. You may need to use legal names for background checks, but otherwise use preferred names.
Make sure that inquiry and application forms work for households with single applicants and households with 2 or 3 applicants. This supports multi-generational households.
Prioritize hiring staff who reflect your community's demographics and languages. This improves communication and helps families feel more comfortable throughout the process.
This strategy in action
Prince George’s County, MD; Fairfax County, VA; Colorado; and Washington State use inclusive and representative pictures and stories in their recruitment materials.
Washington State and Oregon added pronouns and preferred names to their inquiry and application forms.