Here for you every step of the way

UCAN is here to help you navigate the process of becoming a foster parent.

For more than 154 years UCAN has worked toward the vision that youth who suffer trauma can become our future leaders. Our Foster Care program is a key component to serving these youth. We are currently seeking foster parents who can provide quality care to a child or youth.

How to get involved

  • Working with pregnant or parenting youth is a challenging yet rewarding opportunity. Mentoring is a major part of the role foster parents play in this program. Open your home - and heart – to provide a safe and nurturing environment to a young family and support a young parent in their development, which in itself is rewarding.

  • Foster parents give children family centered and supportive care and an opportunity to heal from the trauma they experienced earlier in life. At the same time, foster parents support and encourage biological parents in their efforts to demonstrate that their children can be safely returned to their families. Traditional foster parents care for children with fewer emotional, physical or behavioral issues. These foster parents help a child adjust to the foster care system while offering support and helping them find peace in their upside down world.

  • Specialized foster care is a unique program dedicated to providing stability in the lives of children and youth with challenging problems that might include behavioral, emotional, physical and mental challenges. These parents provide intensive, individualized therapeutic supervision.

  • UCAN provides care for youth with multiple needs, including mental health, developmental and medical conditions that require intensive supervision and treatment. Foster parents work closely with a treatment team to provide the most home-like care possible for youth who would otherwise be in a higher level of care.

How we help

  • Application assistance

  • Continuum of care

  • Foster parent advocacy

  • Mentorship & assistance

  • Therapeutic interventions

  • Ongoing training

  • Support groups

What to Expect

Illinois sets basic requirements for individuals or families who want to become foster parents. Most importantly, UCAN seeks foster parents who can make the commitment to provide quality care to a child or youth. UCAN ensures that foster parents are best suited for the children we place in their homes according to these basic guidelines: 

  • You must be at least 23 years old

  • You may be single or married

  • You must have sufficient household income to care for a child

  • The state provides a stipend to you for each youth

  • You must be in good physical and mental health

  • You must be a stable, responsible, law-abiding citizen (people with convictions (but not a felony conviction) can apply)

Featured
Demarcus Collins: Foster Parent, Role Model
Demarcus Collins: Foster Parent, Role Model

As a foster parent for the past dozen years to a total of 10 young African-American males, Demarcus Collins dismantles any number of stereotypes about who a foster parent is and what they should look like.

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