Blog

The Benefits of Trust-Based Relational Interventions for Foster Children

Foster care can be a challenging and stressful experience for both children and families. Many children in foster care have ...
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The Importance of Teaching Foster Youth About Budgeting and Savings

Foster youth often face unique challenges when it comes to financial stability. They may have experienced instability in their living ...
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The Impact of Trauma on Mental Health and Wellness

Trauma can have a profound and lasting impact on an individual's mental health and overall wellbeing. Whether it's the result ...
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Understanding the Unique Mental Health Needs of Foster Children

Foster children often experience unique and complex mental health challenges as a result of the trauma they have experienced and ...
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5 Services Offered at a Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility

At Pathway Family Services, we understand that seeking help for mental health and substance abuse issues can be a daunting ...
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Are You a Potential Foster Parent? Probably So!

Many people understandably feel daunted at the prospect of foster parenting.  Caring for a child is a big job. Caring ...
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Making Respite Care Work for Your Family

When you foster children, you quickly learn that self-care is crucial. You need to have regular breaks, but what do ...
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7 Ways A Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility Can Help a Child/Teen

Depending on the childhood experiences that a tween or teen has gone through, it is possible for them to develop ...
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The Value of Inpatient Care for Mental Health

Complexity characterizes the treatment of mental diseases such as bipolar disorder, severe depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, and others. Adults with extreme ...
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How a Psychiatric Residential Treatment Program Can Help a Child in Need

A child who has experienced trauma, academic failure,  substance use, and mental illness suffers on multiple levels.  He sees himself ...
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The Importance Of Trust-Based Relational Interventions

It is so important that foster children are able to get the therapy that they need for a lot of ...
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Why Respite Care Is So Important For Foster Children

As a foster parent, you will have the opportunity to provide respite care for multiple children. Respite care is temporary ...
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What You Need To Know About Exposure Therapy

When it comes to dealing with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), there are a lot of different therapy options that have ...
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So You Want To Be A Foster Parent

If you've recently found yourself wanting to help children who are in need, you might be thinking about becoming a ...
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Does the Law Allow Me to Travel with My Foster Child?

Do you have an adopted kid and wondering if you can travel with them? The Child Protection and Permanency (CP&P) unit ...
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TFI Hosts Second Successful Health Fair at Local Pathway Family Services Facility

Topeka, KS - Pathway Family Services (PFS), an agency of TFI, takes the health & safety of its staff and ...
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Can I Foster Without a Spare Bedroom? Here’s What to Know

According to the CCA Institute, there are about 424,000 children in foster in the country at any given moment. The core definition ...
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Why A Residential Health and Wellness Center Can be Beneficial to You

A health and wellness center can be beneficial in many different ways. It is a safe place where people of ...
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5 Guiding Principles for Effective Foster Parenting

Wanting to open your heart and door to foster children is indeed an admirable gesture. Each year, thousands of children ...
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I Want To Be A Foster Parent

Thousands of children are in desperate need of a safe home. Unfortunately, there aren't enough foster families to care for ...
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Becoming A Foster Parent

We all want children to grow up in a loving, nurturing environment that provides them with the safety and support ...
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Pathway Services Health & Wellness Center

Pathway Family Services is a child placement agency certified by the Department of Health and Environment in Kansas as well as a residential ...
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When the Qualified Residential Treatment Program is Needed

The Scenario Despair can sneak up on someone. Often, the mental state of a child will seem to be satisfactory ...
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Guide to Starting the Foster Care Process

The first step toward becoming a foster care parent involves the desire and compassion to help abused and neglected children ...
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Become a Licensed Foster Care Provider

Nationwide, by year-end 2021, there were about 402,000 children in the foster care system. Of that amount, close to 7,000 children ...
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Adolescents that Age Out of the Foster Care System

Some adolescents that "age out" of the foster care system do not have a stable home atmosphere that they can ...
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The Qualified Residential Treatment Program at Pathway Family Services

When a child needs a little more support than what is found in a foster home, a non-family home may ...
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Independent Living Program: Helping Foster Kids Stabilize and Enter Adulthood

Options for Independent Living Programs in Kansas Pathway Family Services, Inc. does more than provide foster care and placements in ...
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Psychiatric Rehabilitation Programs – A Path to Independent Living

Youth who have been receiving psychiatric treatment through much of their childhood benefit from assistance transitioning into adulthood. Programs called ...
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So You Want to be a Foster Parent 101

When a child is placed in the state's care, foster care parents open their homes and hearts to them. This ...
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The Truth About Teens and PTSD

We've all heard that kids and teens are resilient, and this is largely true, but not in the way we ...
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Study Shows Online CBT Is More Effective Than Face to Face

If you're a foster parent with a child receiving cognitive behavioral therapy for depression, you'll be interested in a recent ...
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Does Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Sound Too Simple?

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) sounds so simple that you may wonder if it will really help your foster child. One ...
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Working with Your Outpatient Team

The need for mental health services is on the rise, but the understanding of why mental health services are needed ...
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Outpatient Services to Help You on an Individual and Family Level

If you want to strengthen family and community relations, it sometimes becomes necessary to seek professional help. Whether you have ...
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Safe Haven Shelter: Creating Physical, Mental and Emotional Stability for Children

Most people are familiar with the concept of a domestic violence shelter for women and children, but they may not ...
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Your Relationship With Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) offers each patient a unique structure that fits precisely what he or she needs. Common mental health ...
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Transitioning to Adulthood Through an Independent Living Program

The transition between being a teenager and moving into adulthood can be successful for anyone, if provided with the right ...
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Our Independent Living Program

What is TRAIL? Late adolescence is a time fraught with conflict for some individuals as they leave their family units ...
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What if CBT Makes Your Foster Teen Feel Worse Before They Feel Better?

You might be surprised to know that your foster teen receiving cognitive behavioral therapy and similar treatments sometimes feels worse ...
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EMDR for Teen PTSD Treatment

Caused from many forms of trauma, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is common among teens who have experienced abuse and neglect ...
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Journaling Tips for Foster Children Receiving Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Your foster child may be asked to keep a journal if they're receiving cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Writing in a ...
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The Cause of PTSD in Teens

PTSD can be frightening and stressful, not just for children but also for their families. Here at Pathway Family Services ...
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How psychiatric rehabilitation programs can benefit you

When choosing a health care option for you or a loved one, there are many things to consider: medical history, ...
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Combining CBT with Meditation for Your Foster Child

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and meditation are two practices that often work even better when you put them together. If ...
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How CBT Helps Foster Children with Personalization Distortions

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help foster children and teens find relief from many common forms of distorted thinking, such ...
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The Difference Between Psychiatric Residential Treatment Centers and Inpatient Therapy

While residential treatment centers and inpatient treatment may seem like the same thing, they're really not. Both offer the patient ...
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Common Questions about Psychological Testing and Psychiatric Rehabilitation Programs

Psychological testing plays an important role in psychiatric rehabilitation programs. If you're caring for a foster child or teen who ...
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What Are the Age Limits for Foster Care?

If you are considering becoming a foster parent, you might have a number of questions, specifically questions about age requirements ...
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What is a Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility?

The words "psychiatric residential treatment facility" likely conjure up images of a dark asylum full of abused patients and evil ...
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Teen PTSD: What Foster Parents Should Know

Children enter foster care for various reasons, and many of those reasons involve trauma. For current and future foster parents, ...
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Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Giving Hope to Foster Children

Your foster child has entered your home because her parent was unable to care for her. You spend time with ...
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3D Study Sheds Light on Tenacity of Post Traumatic Stress in Children

As a foster parent, you may wish that you could understand PTSD better. Why do some forms of traumatic stress ...
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Tips for Talking to a Teen Who Has PTSD

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, commonly known as PTSD, is a combination of symptoms that come after one goes through a terrifying ...
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How Residential Treatment Can Help Mental Health

Residential treatment is when a person struggling with mental health problems lives at a treatment facility to receive around-the-clock care ...
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3 Signs Your Foster Child Might Have PTSD

What Is PTSD? Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental health condition caused by violent or terrifying events. Most often, people ...
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Using CBT to Overcome Anxiety

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, anxiety disorders affect 40 million adults in the United States, but ...
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Turning Negatives Into Positives With Cognitive Behavioral Therapy!

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a form of psychotherapy that involves restructuring the way the mind thinks and perceives situations ...
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Residential Treatment…Clearing a Path to Healthy Living

As mental health continues to gain recognition, we become increasingly aware of its importance in our overall well-being. According to ...
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Understanding PTSD in Teens

In recent years, the stigma surrounding Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) decreased. PTSD is a mental illness brought on as ...
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The Impact of PTSD Symptoms in Teens

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), relates to those who have participated in combat, but it is often not discussed outside of ...
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Ideas for a Fun Weekend Game Night With Your Foster Child

Are you looking for a way to curb your foster child's screen addiction? Do you want a better way to ...
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Teach Your Foster Child How to Adult With These Strategies

If your foster child is a teen, then you'll need to prepare him for the time when he leaves your ...
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Affordable Extracurricular Activities for Your Foster Child

You want to nurture your foster child's talents and help them build strong friendships. You're considering extracurricular activities, but some ...
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Once Upon a Time…Johnny’s Story

Johnny Had Big Dreams Once upon a time, there was a boy destined to be a scientist who hoped to ...
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Are You Ready to Be a Hero? Consider Emergency Fostering

A group of unsung heroes lives in your community. Since these heroes don't go about wearing capes or leaping over ...
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Do I Have to Be Married & Own My Home to Foster?

The foster care system is overflowing with children, toddlers, and infants of all ages who desperately need foster parents willing ...
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The Role of Communication, Individuality, and Understanding in Foster Care Services

Partaking in foster care services can be both exciting and scary at the same time. Yes, you're going to have ...
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Answers for the “Aging Out” Teen Questioning Their Future

Sharde Armstrong, a Taylor University graduate and former foster care child, poignantly expresses in a post on FosterClub the challenges ...
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Following the News With Your Foster Child

When you become a foster parent, you enrich a child's life in many ways. In addition to providing a loving ...
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Fun Ways to Supplement Your Foster Child’s School Education At Home

Although your foster child is getting most of his learning at school, this doesn't mean that you can't build on ...
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Best Presents for Foster Kids Ages 2-5

If you have a foster child between ages two and five, you're wondering which presents are the best to get ...
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How to Become a Foster Parent

According to the United States Children's Bureau's report, on any given day, the United States has approximately 443,000 children in foster ...
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Myths That Keep You From Becoming a Foster Parent

You have a burning desire to make a difference by raising a foster child but you have doubts about it ...
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Raising A Foster Child With Sensory Processing Disorder

If your foster child has sensory processing disorder, you're wondering how you should manage his condition while raising him well ...
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Common Questions About Residential Treatment Centers For Children

When you are a parent, you are bound to come across some children who have behavioral challenges. Children who have ...
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Helping Your Foster Child Develop Healthy Eating Habits

You know about the importance of healthy eating for your foster child, but what do you do if he has ...
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How to Prepare for Respite Fostering

Foster parenting is difficult. This is why it's important for foster parents to have time to relax and decompress. According ...
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Are You Interested in Becoming a Foster Parent?

According to the United States Children's Bureau's report, on any given day, the United States has approximately 443,000 children in ...
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Three Ways to Help Kids in the Foster Care System

The foster care system has its challenges. However, it is still the best feeling of home that the close to ...
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Treat Your Foster Children Like Adults to Teach Them the Value of Money

Most kids live in a world where they are judged on the basis of the things they own. This can ...
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Check-In With Your Children Daily

Mental health is equally as important as physical health. Children and adolescents are in rather difficult stages of their lives ...
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How Teachers Can Support the Foster Child

School-aged foster children are going to spend just as much time at school as they do at their foster homes ...
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Addressing Common Foster Parent Fears

With over 400,000 children in foster care in the United States, the need for loving foster homes continues to rise ...
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What If You Could Change the Future?

One thing that we can all count on is that life is unpredictable.  Feeling like we are in control can ...
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What is Specialized Foster Care?

Being a kid isn't easy. Whether you're a biological or foster parent, you know that a child needs a lot ...
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How to Support Foster Families Immediately After Placement

Talk to any foster family and you will know that fostering is hard. It is also fulfilling and worth the ...
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How to Prepare for Emergency Fostering

Every day a child's life turns upside down by an unknown terror. Sometimes, a parent abandons them or jailed unexpectedly, ...
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Long Term Fostering, A Bridge Toward Reunification

A foster family lends a unique role to children. Foster families nurture children of all ages and also provide security ...
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Independent Living Program

Not everyone is promised the same opportunities in life. Sometimes adolescents age out of the foster care system, but don't ...
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Does Your Child Need Residential Treatment?

Keeping your child safe and healthy often requires a parent to make difficult choices. Sometimes, youth are faced with serious ...
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Supporting Your Child Through Residential Treatment

Even more challenging than watching your child struggle with a mental health disorder might be admitting them to residential treatment ...
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You Can Help a Child by Respite Fostering

Are you a nurturing caregiver? You take great care on a daily basis to make sure your loved ones are ...
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Adolescent Residential Treatment Centers Throughout Kansas

The decision to seek residential treatment centers for a child is a heavy one. Choosing the right facility can seem ...
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Independent Living Program for Teens in Foster Care

Have you ever heard of the term "aging out"? In regards to foster care, it refers to children in foster ...
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Adoption vs. Long-Term Fostering

Adoption, as everyone knows, is permanent. Adoptive parents have all parental rights and responsibilities regarding their adopted child, just as ...
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Provide a Child a Home by Becoming a Foster Parent

In Kansas, there are more children in shelters than there are in foster care. This is because there are only ...
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Kansas’s Struggling Foster Care System

Kansas's struggling foster care is suffering from a shortage of foster care workers because the requirements are too high. Many ...
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Family-Friendly Outdoor Activities and A Few Safety Tips For Foster Families

When the winter weather arrives, it can be challenging if you’re an active family who likes to partake in sports ...
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I Want to be a Foster Parent in Kansas

There are many people who want to foster a child. However, they have no idea what steps to take or ...
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More Tips to Introduce Your Children to Foster Children

Once you decide to bring a foster child into your home, you have to be prepared when you tell others ...
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Tips to Introduce Your Children to Foster Children

If you have decided to foster children who need a good home, that is great news. However, be prepared that ...
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What is Respite Foster Care?

As a foster parent, you are responsible for a child at all times. However, there are going to be times ...
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Common Behaviors Exhibited by Foster Children

Foster children come from all walks of life. They have many different experiences and behaviors which make them who they ...
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Tips to Help a Troubled Foster Child

While you may picture yourself getting a baby or toddler to foster, the truth is that you could find yourself ...
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Are You Able to Foster Children as a Single Parent?

Many people one daydream of having a child to care for, with a large number hoping to foster those most ...
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Cute little girl giving mom bouquet of pink gerbera daisies. Loving mother and daughter smiling and hugging. Woman smiling because of compensation for foster parents.

Is There Compensation for Foster Parents?

If you've considered becoming a foster parent, chances are you've heard that they get paid. Maybe it was a friend ...
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Foster Parents Do Not Get Paid – But Do Get Monthly Tax Reimbursement

Foster Parents are Not Paid If you are considering becoming a foster parent, you may wonder if you are provided ...
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What Are the Age Limits for Fostering?

If you are considering becoming a foster parent, you might have a number of questions. Specifically, you might have questions about ...
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Can Single Parents Foster Children?

Can Single Parents Foster Children? Many single parents have risen to the occasion when it comes to fostering children all throughout ...
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Getting Your Foster Care License in Kansas

Fostering a child might sound like a daunting task for prospective foster parents; where do you even start? It can ...
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Do Foster Parents Get Paid?

If you've considered becoming a foster parent, chances are you've heard that they get paid. Maybe it was a friend ...
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Foster Parenting Requirements: What You Need To Know

The foster process in the United States can be intimidating, but it doesn't have to be. At Pathway Family Services, ...
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Summer is here! Here’s how to have fun with your foster children!

The sun is shining, school is out, and it’s time to have some summer fun. Get the whole family involved ...
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Becoming a foster parent: how to decide if it’s for you

Foster parenting is a big, but rewarding experience. Helping vulnerable children by providing them with a safe and loving home ...
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Preparing your home for your foster child

So you’ve decided to become a foster parent. Congratulations! You’re about to embark on a wonderful journey! But first: it’s ...
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How foster care can positively affect the children already in the house

A foster parent can provide countless benefits to the children they foster, but those benefits also extend to the other ...
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Benefits of Being a Foster Parent

It’s true: fostering can provide a life-changing experience for the foster child. Welcomed into warm and loving homes, they are ...
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I Can’t be a Foster Parent Right Now – How Else Can I Help?

While there are endless benefits and joys that come with foster parenting, it’s understandable that it’s not for everyone at ...
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5 Myths About Foster Care

If you’re considering foster care, you likely have a long list of questions about the process and what to expect ...
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Foster Care vs. Adoption: Differences and Similarities

Welcoming a child into your home to provide them with a safe and stable place is both a noble and ...
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5 Valuable Tips for Being the Best Parent You Can Be

Am I a good parent? It’s a question millions of Americans will ask themselves daily this year. There is no ...
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7 Family-Friendly Spring Activities to Enjoy Together This Season

Spring is finally here, which means children are itching to get outside and enjoy the warmer, happier air. As a ...
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The Top Benefits Realized by Children in Stable Foster Homes

When a child receives news that they are being welcomed into a safe and loving home with open arms, they ...
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5 Reasons You Should Become a Foster Parent in 2018

It’s hard to ignore the statistics today. There are thousands of American children in need of a safe and supportive ...
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Why Right Now is the Time for You to Consider Becoming a Foster Parent

Thousands of children are bouncing around the American foster care system today, waiting to be adopted into a family they ...
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Why Do Children End Up in the Foster Care System?

Throughout the United States, thousands of children, every single year, end up in the American foster care system. Although you ...
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The Top Misconceptions About Becoming a Foster Parent

When children are unable to grow up in a loving home, with their biological parents, in a safe and guarded ...
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5 Tips for Being a Stellar Foster Parent

You’ve made the decision to become a foster parent, and that is absolutely fantastic. Thousands of children in Kansas right ...
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Becoming a Foster Parent: What You Can Expect

Foster parents are needed across the country and across the world today. Children are left in difficult situations, without families, ...
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How to Become a Foster Parent in 2018

Right now, there are many thousands of children placed into out of home care. Yet, there are vastly fewer potential ...
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