Foster Care Support Application

PBC Foster Care Supplemental Support Policy

Foster families face unique difficulties that cause emotional and physical strain. All foster children have experienced trauma and would benefit from their foster parents having more time to spend in bonding and quality time with them on an ongoing basis. Foster children are more likely to - have challenging behaviors, have difficulty sleeping, require more doctor visits/ medications, and have delays or disorders that require therapies and appointments. 

Foster parents regularly attend court hearings, permanency planning meetings, mandatory training classes, and group support meetings. They host social workers, licensing workers, and guardian ad litems in their homes. They often transport their foster children to visitation with their biological parents weekly. They are also required to participate in shared parenting. Most battle anxieties over the uncertainties surrounding their foster children's basic safety, not to mention long term outcomes. Some of the items on the list are obviously necessary, like formula and clothes, but others are to try to help offset the time spent on these extra duties and relieve some of the stress caused by the nature of foster care.

Process: 

• The family applies for Foster Care Support to the PBC Endowment Committee. 
• Once the family is approved by the Endowment Committee, the family may receive funds from the Adoption Endowment as follows: 
  • $2,000 upon initial placement of a foster child
  • Counseling for the foster family and foster child if age-appropriate from church-approved counselor 
  • $2,000 per calendar year based on the following pre-approved list of reimbursable items:
    • Furniture (bed, crib, etc..(
    • Car seat, boosters, stroller
    • Clothing and shoes
    • Baby supplies (diapers, formula, baby food, bottles)
    • Hair cuts
    • School supplies
    • Enrichment/Developmental Activities  (passes to YMCA with 90 mins of childcare, summer camps, swim lessons, children’s books etc…)
    • Therapeutic items (glasses, therapy supplies, lice treatment, etc…)
    • Baby sitting
    • House cleaning
    • Grass cutting and weed-eating
    • Birthday party/presents up to $200
    • Family bonding opportunities up to $200 (Carowinds, zoo, Great Wolf Lodge etc.)
    • Foster licensing costs 
  • Other items or special requests outside of the above list may be approved on an individual basis by the Endowment Committee
• Receipts for the above items will be processed by the Finance Office per this policy document and the Financial Policies and Procedures of Parkwood Baptist Church