FOSTER CARE SUPPORT
In 2021, D.C.’s child welfare agency, Child & Family Services, reported:
Foster care is not permanent. Foster families step in to create a safe, stable environment for a child, while birth parents address their personal challenges. Ensuring that families can safely reunite requires support for foster homes and birth parents from the entire community. This is where DC127 steps in.
DC127 journeys with parents who are socially isolated, overwhelmed, under-resourced, facing significant life challenges and at increased risk of instability. We mobilize churches and recruit volunteers to build a support system that preserves families and ensures that children have a safe and healthy home. Although our hope is that every child remains with their family, we also recruit and support foster families as a safety net for children who need a safe alternative. We walk with families fostering in the District and connect them to community resources, volunteers, and a support network to limit the amount of child placement disruptions.
As a support community, DC127 provides tangible resources, information, Trauma Informed Training and supportive relationships to ensure limited placement disruptions. Ensuring that families who are fostering have stability, children can safely reunite with birth parents, and parenting teens in foster care have access to services to transition from care with independence and a supportive community.
“Thank you DC127 for your continued amazing generosity that has been a lifeline for us in this season. You are literally the hands and feet of Jesus and bring so much encouragement. We cannot thank you enough!”
- Foster Parent supported by DC127
“Talking to my volunteer helped me a lot. She helped me to think differently and progress towards my goals.”
- CFF Teen Parent
How We Serve
FOSTER CARE INFORMATION SESSIONS
People interested in fostering are invited to attend DC127’s Foster Care Information Session, where participants get an inside look at what it takes to become a foster parent in the District. DC127 works directly with Child and Family Services, D.C.'s child welfare agency, to facilitate the information sessions. The information session is the first step for parents to become licensed in D.C.
Whether fostering or adopting, DC127 connects parents to various supports around the DMV to continue learning the best ways to care for a new child in their home, as well as for themselves. We also provide in-house, industry-led trainings for foster and adoptive parents on topics such as trauma-informed care, de-escalation, supporting youth's developmental growth, and more. In partnership with Foster and Adoptive Parenting Advocacy Center (FAPAC), foster parents have advocacy support, access to resources, and have a supportive community.
SUPPORT TO TEEN PARENTS IN FOSTER CARE
DC127 works with teen parents in and aging out of foster care to ensure they can exit with the perspective and resources they will need to make a successful transition into a life of independence. We partner with CFSA to identify teens in care who might benefit from our programs and provide community resources, support, direct services, and long-term planning to create stability and confidence.
Our program focuses on goal setting to remove barriers to effective parenting while decreasing feelings of overwhelm. We also offer direct services including grocery support, counseling, and one-time rent and utility payments. This support will mitigate short-term stressors and allow teen parents to focus on long-term goals. Our coordinated staff and volunteer effort provides access to resources and life skills training, which ultimately creates empowered parents and safer homes.
For more information, contact our Program Director, Kelsie Johnson, at kelsie@dc127.org, 202-670-1145 (ext. 3).
