Centre County Government: Children and Youth Services: Foster Care

Office of Children and Youth Services

Foster Care

Forms
Training
Interested in becoming a foster parent?
Upcoming Events

Forms

Training

Pre-Service Training

Pre-service Training is required of all foster parents before final approval as a licensed foster home. Pre-Service Training is offered three times a year; in the fall, winter, and spring. The classes occur one night a week, typically from 6:30 to 9:00 PM, and are six weeks in length. All interested community members are welcome to attend. If you are interested in attending Pre-Service Training classes, please contact Lisa Bednarchik, Foster Home Specialist, at 814-355-6755.

Annual Foster Parent Training Requirements

Centre County foster parents are required to complete at least six hours of training annually. If a foster child placed in the home is active in the reunification process, one of the foster parents is required to have at least twelve hours of training. The agency makes many training resources available to foster parents, including booklets, books, DVDs, and videos. Online training is also available through numerous websites. Often, training through community agencies can count towards the annual training requirements.

You can find the list of agency training resources by accessing the link below. If you are interested in any of the resources, please contact Jordan Joyce; Foster Home Recruiter, 814-355-3807 ext. 216.

Websites for Training

Connect for Kids
Foster Care and Adoptive Community
Casey Family Programs
National Foster Parent Association (NFPA)
Pennsylvania State Resource Family Association (PSRFA)
Focus Adolescent Services
Foster Parent Online Training
FosterParentTraning.com Offers ongoing training for $15 per person and $30 per couple for one year. You can utilize them as much as you like and the time you earned varies depending the topic you chose. They give you a certificate after completion.
Foster Parent College charges an $8 fee per course. Each course is approximately 30-45 minutes long, not including the question and answer section. Because of the interactive format, you can go at your own pace, and review chapters if you'd like- this would count for two hours of training. They also give you a certificate.
Foster Care and Adoptive Community Online Training offers 62 courses with new topics added continuously. Certificates of completion are immediately generated with the passing of 80% correct on test at the end of each course. Certificates may be emailed or downloaded from the screen to your computer, printed out and presented to your agency. Certificates are beautiful and contain your name, course title, hours credited, and date. The course will remain online for 5 days. They charge by course and it ranges from $4 to $7 per course. The time earned varies per course.

Training Resources

Interested in becoming a foster parent?

Centre County foster children need Centre County foster homes. Many children, ages from birth to 18 years of age, are currently in the custody of Centre County. These children need safe, stable, loving foster homes. If you have room in your heart and room in your home, please consider becoming a Centre County foster parent. If you are interested in becoming a foster parent or interested in learning more about our program, please contact Lisa Bednarchik, Foster Home Specialist at 814-355-6755.

Here are some links for you to access in order to learn more about foster parenting.

Upcoming Events

Winter Preservice Training

We are getting ready to begin our next session of preservice training classes for new foster parents, kinship care givers, and new staff. These are informal and relaxed sessions, during which we will talk about the structure of the agency, legal procedures, our reunification program, separation and grieving issues, potential impacts on the foster family, and effects of placement on the foster child and biological family. The schedule for the winter sessions is as follows:

Thursday, February 4, 2010	6:30 - 9:00 p.m.
Thursday, February 11, 2010	6:30 - 9:00 p.m.
Thursday, February 18, 2010	6:30 - 9:00 p.m.
Thursday, February 25, 2010	6:30 - 9:00 p.m.
Thursday, March 4, 2010	6:30 - 9:00 p.m.
Thursday, March 18, 2010	6:30 - 9:00 p.m.

Please contact Lisa Bednarchik at Centre County Children and Youth Services for further information regarding our preservice training classes: 814-355-6755.

Focus on Strong Families Annual Conference for Parents

Saturday, February 27, 2010 at the Mount Nittany Middle School

Centre County Children and Youth Services staff and foster parents will be presenting at this year's Focus on Strong Families Conference. If you are interested in learning more about foster parenting, please join us! We will be discussing what is involved in becoming a foster or adoptive parent, and the need for qualified families to help children. For more information and/or to register for the conference, please contact State College Area School District at 814-231-1062. You can also visit their website: www.scasd.org; go to Family Outreach Services.

Centre County Government