Looking for Foster Parents in Massachusetts

Hi! I adopted my DD from foster care (thru the state directly) here in MA a few months ago. I am a bit surprised that there are no MAPP sessions going on right now. Are you willing to travel? We took ours at the Casey Foundation ...they were amazing. And they had them on consecutive Saturdays (which worked better for us). Here's a list of upcoming MAPP trainings. Call them directly...seriously...and then notify your worker (some workers are better than others, and I find in any event you have to be proactive!). Feel free to ask me anything else or pm me! [url=http://www.mareinc.org/MAPP-Trainings.html]Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange-MARE[/url]

Thanks, loveajax. We can travel some, but both work full time (for now), so evenings are hard to accommodate if they aren't near work or home. A weekend would be ok, especially in the new year. There is one done by DCF that is not too far from us that's listed as "ongoing" but it isn't our district. Our office stressed to us that we should do our training with them, instead of outside our district, as we'd begin to build our social and support structure there. Maybe I've taken that too much to heart.

Hmmm...I think I would seriously think about just getting it done. There is such a huge need but the state is so screwy (and frankly that sounds a bit "territorial"...ha!). Are you looking to foster or adopt??

For now, just foster. We might be open to adopting, but I guess we're going into this just to be foster parents for now. We have a two-and-a-half year old of our own, so we're going in carefully but enthusiastically.

Great!! I am sort of "must get things done yesterday" type so I wouldn't wait. But if you think it will help you on your journey to wait to do the training then that's good too. We had really good workers, so I know we were lucky...hopefully you will too. Keep me posted!

We did our training in a neighboring town. Our local DCF office rescheduled the training several times and it was always on days/weeks when we couldn't do it. So we eventually took one through the next town over. I continue to attend the support run by the other town and some of my best support comes from people I met there. Just get the training done. It doesn't matter where you do it. And here is the difference between DCF and an agency: kids whose cases are referred out to private agencies are supposed to be "specialized". Those tend to be more difficult cases: kids with medical issues, significant mental health issues, significant behavioral issues, kids who have been in DCF custody for a longer period, and older kids. The private agencies pay a higher rate (3-4 times the regular rate) and they provide more support (caseworkers on call 24/7) but they usually come with more significant commitment requirements - one person needs to be a stay at home parent and the kids tend to have a higher level of care. That being said - my son was placed with a "specialized" foster home at 4 months and he had no issues. They just didn't have any DCF homes available on the night he went into custody. If you are home full time with your 2 1/2 year old you could qualify as a "specialized" home. But unless you have experience working with mentally ill/emotionally disturbed children, you might want to think twice about doing specialized foster care while your child is so young. Feel free to PM me. Good luck.

c.a, thank you for that info. I think I had an inkling of why kids went to agencies, but that really made it clear to me. Do most people in MA foster through the state or through agencies? I appreciate your advice. I believe we will try to stay with the state for now, like you said, until my son is older and until we have a better idea of what this will be like and what we're capable of!