Based on the latest 2006 data by the National Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), there are an estimated 510,000 children in foster care. Forty-nine percent (49%) of these children live in non-relative foster family homes, and only seventeen percent (17%) have been adopted (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2009). Even more startling is the fact that an estimated 20,000 foster children “age out” of the foster care system without ever receiving a permanent placing. In response to these growing statistics, kinship care services have been introduced across the U.S. to train and certify birth relatives into foster parents and/or legal guardians, so that they may effectively provide quality care to foster children. The ultimate goal of kinship care is to preserve the family core and provide a sense of stability, security and belonging that many foster children never experience.

Bridging Hope’s Foster/Group Home wholeheartedly believes in the principles of kinship care and whenever possible, we work to preserve the child’s family core and offer services and programs to help build sustainable care in a child’s home. Through active community partnership, self-evaluation, and evidenced-based methods, we involve both biological and foster parents to ultimately provide consistency and continuity in a family setting for the growing child.