This year the national Week of Foster Care is from November 3 to 16. In this week, Foster Care Netherlands together with the 32 regional foster care organizations, including Combinatie Jeugdzorg, calls attention to the shortage of foster parents. 

What is foster care?

Foster care means that a child stays with another family for a short or longer period of time because living with their own parents is (temporarily) not possible due to circumstances. Sometimes children stay with foster parents for a weekend or several days a week. Often children live with a foster family seven days a week. What is chosen depends on what is best for the child. If there are problems in a family, we first see if this can be solved at home. If that does not work, foster care is the first choice because this form of care comes closest to the natural family situation. Preferably a place with family or acquaintances in the direct environment of the child. If this is not possible, Combinatie Jeugdzorg will look for a suitable foster family from its foster parent database. The right of children to grow up in a family is paramount in foster care. 

Good match

There is still an urgent shortage of foster parents. Thus, more than 800 foster children in the Netherlands were waiting for a safe and stable place in a foster family. Due to the shortage of available foster families, foster care organizations have to search longer for a good match. There has been a decline in the number of new foster parents for several years, while the demand for foster care is still greater and requires more customization. 

Making your house a^2nd home

With the foster care campaign 'Your house a 2nd home', Pleegzorg Nederland wants to make as many people as possible aware of what they can do for a child looking for a stable and safe home. It is emphatically not 'the new home' - that place remains reserved for the biological parents. But you can welcome a child into your home. You can be there for him/her, make sure the child - temporarily or less temporarily - gets enough attention, feels warmth and is seen. It is an extra home where a child can go for a short or longer time. 

Want to know if foster care is for you? 

Combination Youth Care is the foster care provider in the Southeast Brabant region. Would you like to know more about foster care? Request an information package or visit one of the monthly foster care information evenings with no obligation. The next one is on Tuesday, November 12, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Combinatie Jeugdzorg, Locht 133 in Veldhoven. More information, requesting an information package or registering for an information meeting is very easy via www.combinatiejeugdzorg.nl/pleegzorg/pleegouder-worden.