The youth in our Foster Care program are looking for a place to belong, hope for tomorrow, and often times, healing after experiencing abuse and neglect. DePaul’s dedicated, professional staff support foster parents every step of the way, utilizing a collaborative team approach that helps young people in foster care to heal from trauma.
Specialized Support
Our commitment to smaller caseloads allows our staff to provide extra support to our foster families. Each young person is assigned to a caseworker who helps to answer questions, solve problems, and provide guidance to both the child and his or her foster parents. Foster parents receive special training on attachment theory principles to help promote healing for the foster youth in their care. While in our Foster Care program, we strive toward achieving permanency for every young person—whether it is through reunification with birth family or through adoption.
DePaul also offers additional support services, including 24-hour crisis availability, short-term care, and a wide array of training opportunities and social activities throughout the year.
Our foster home placements include:
- Treatment foster care, for young people with unique challenges who require a family with specialized training. Unique challenges include emotional/behavioral issues, medical/physical issues, or intellectual disabilities.
- Placements for sibling groups
- Emergency placements, including after-hours, weekends, and holidays
- Pre-adoptive placements for children who have the goal of adoption
- Non-custodial placements, when it is in the best interest of the young person for his or her parents or legal guardian to maintain custody during an out-of-home placement
- Non-treatment foster care placements