Recommended Resources
There are many resources available to help you learn and navigate your journey in foster/kinship care and adoption. Below are some of the resources we have loved and want to share with you.
Do you know of a good resource that we should add? Send us a message and we'll check it out!
Organizations
Wanting to learn more about becoming a foster parent? The best first step is attending an informational meeting through a licensing agency, such as Dakota County.
The Quality Parenting Initiative (QPI), a strategy of the Youth Law Center, is an approach to strengthening foster care, refocusing on excellent parenting for all children in the child welfare system.
Adoption is Love Fund is an organization who comes alongside foster youth by granting wishes.
MN Adopt has a vision of Zero Kids Waiting for permanent loving families and is on a mission to find and strengthen Minnesota adoptive, foster care and kinship families.
Books
Reframing Foster Care is a collection of gospel-centered reflections on the foster parenting journey designed to help you do just that – find hope. Through the personal reflection and group discussion questions you’ll be reminded that your work is worth it and you are not alone.
Understanding how to connect with children from hard places who have experienced trauma is crucial to being a foster parent. The Connected Child provides a lot of information and tangible ways to care for your children from foster care.
Renowned child-development expert Dr. Karyn Purvis gives you practical advice and powerful tools you can use to encourage secure attachment in your family. You will benefit from Karyn’s decades of clinical research and real-world experience. Coauthor Lisa Qualls demonstrates how you can successfully implement these strategies in your home, just as she did in hers. Order your copy of The Connected Parent here on Amazon.
The authors explain—and make accessible—the new science of how a child’s brain is wired and how it matures. The “upstairs brain,” which makes decisions and balances emotions, is under construction until the mid-twenties. And especially in young children, the right brain and its emotions tend to rule over the logic of the left brain. No wonder kids throw tantrums, fight, or sulk in silence. By applying these discoveries to everyday parenting, you can turn any outburst, argument, or fear into a chance to integrate your child’s brain and foster vital growth. Order your copy of The Whole-Brain Child here on Amazon.
Podcasts
A podcast for biological, foster and adoptive moms. Sometimes, you don't want to hear from experts. Sometimes, you just want to hear about real life, from real moms.
The Empowered to Connect Podcast a place where we come together to discuss an attachment rich, healing centered approach to engagement and well being for ourselves, our families and our communities.
The Empowered to Parent Podcast with Kayla and Ryan North is a trust-based, trauma-informed, connected parenting resource. Hosted by Chris Turner.
If you're an adoptive parent looking for hope, practical tools, and friends who understand, this podcast is for you! Between the Lisa Qualls and Melissa Corkum, they represent all three parts of the adoption triad. They've been around the block a couple times with kids by birth, adoption, and foster care. And lived to tell about it.
There is something temptingly tidy about the idea of adoption: a family with extra love and resources meets a child in need of both. The reality is adoption involves a profound loss for biological parents and a great gain for adoptive parents, and pitted right in the middle are the adoptees. Angela interviews adoptees from all backgrounds in an effort to shift societal perceptions about adoption.
The MN Adopt podcasts are filled with valuable resources for prospective and current adoptive and foster families, as well as professionals. They are packed with information to help you navigate the complexities and needs of foster care and adoption.
Blogs
A blog offering wisdom, encouragement and experience for people interested in foster care, want to learn more or are already along in their journey.
Jason Johnson has a passion to equip churches and encourage families no matter where they are on their foster care and adoption journeys.
Shop For Good
Help foster youth entering the system and advocate just by getting dressed in the morning. Every purchase from Goods + Better helps give items to foster youth, and you choose the impact you want it to have. Use our promo code, FOSTERMN for 10% off
Founded by a foster and adoptive family, Fawn & Foster's mission is to help children in the foster care system. 50% of all profits are donated to organizations that make a direct impact in the lives of these precious little ones.