Foster family care services are temporary placement services that are provided to parents and children, when children are required to live separate from their natural families. WCA offers foster family care placement services for children, from infancy to age 17. 

The primary goal of foster family care is to reunite children with their families.  To accomplish this goal, WCA provides intensive case management services to help alleviate conditions that necessitated the separation of children from the family. Supportive services to children, their families and foster care parents are provided to ensure that quality foster care placement is achieved.

If family reunification is not attainable within a reasonable period of time, the secondary goal is to arrange for a permanent alternative home for children as soon as possible. 

Children coming into foster care share common experiences and feelings.  They share separation from their own families.

Most have lived through hard times---parent’s separation, parent’s illness, or parental indifference and neglect. 

Often they come away from these experiences feeling unwanted and unloved.

Treatment foster care provides specialized care for high risk children and youth, including children with pronounced emotional disturbance or anti-social behavior, chronic medical problems, terminal illness or serious physical handicaps, and those with other special needs which require a therapeutic family environment.

By accepting a child, WCA assumes responsibility for his care, including deciding where he lives, and for making any changes in his living arrangement.  By assuming this responsibility, WCA brings to bear all the services and programs at its command.  These may include medical services, psychological counseling, educational and socialization activities, or direct therapy for the child who has special emotional problems. 

The goal of foster care is to reunite children with their biological families.

The role of foster parents: While the day-to-day care of foster children is the responsibility of foster parents, WCA ensures that the rights of foster care children are protected against exploitation; that foster care children attend school regularly, receive medical treatment, including regular dental and vision examinations, establish a bank account, participate in regular contact and visits with their parents and other family members.

WCA foster parents must become certified.  They receive extensive orientation and training.  The Foster Parents’ Agreement confirms the official relationship between foster parents and WCA, and outlines the responsibilities foster parents must assume and services the WCA is committed to provide on behalf of the foster child.

Through the WCA Foster Parent Support Group, foster parents work with biological parents to help them develop skills necessary to care for their children.  An Individual Service Plan (ISP) is prepared and updated every 6 months that prescribes what the natural parents and foster parents, and the child must do to help the child grow. 

Special medical care is provided to foster care children and youth who may have multiple, acute or chronic medical conditions, or physical disabilities that may be alleviated and controlled by medical supervision.  The WCA 24 hour hotline is an integral part of the family foster care case management process.

Contact: Doris Thomas, Foster Parents, Home Finding Specialist at (215) 236-9911.

Find out how you can become a foster parent.

Celebrating its 50^th Anniversary in 1969, WCA  announced that 23 children from its foster care  placement program had received academic scholarships and were accepted into various colleges and universities, including Yale, Boston College, Temple, University, Villanova University and Howard University In 1990, WCA is designated the lead agency for the Foster Parent Recruitment Campaign  by the Philadelphia Department of Human services.  The campaign is conducted on behalf  of 15 foster care agencies, bringing over 300  newly certified foster parents into the city-wide  system.

In 1994, WCA established the Family-to-Family (F2F)

Initiative as a family support program to provide out-of-home care, to address the bonds between children, their birth parents, extended family and community affiliations.  F2F enables the placement of children with foster families in their community of origin, to minimize the trauma of separation from the biological parents.