Encouraging Others To Foster Or Adopt . . . When You Haven't Fostered Or Adopted

I think it depends on what you mean by encouraging. If it is something the person is thinking about doing, offering support and encouragement is totally okay. If they aren't considering it and haven't brought it up, I don't think it's appropriate to suggest it (even if you are a foster/ adoptive parent, but especially if you're not). You might think someone would be a great foster parent, but they might not be interested. Or they might also have legitimate reasons for not doing so, even if they want to. You don't know the ins and outs of everyone's situations, so bringing it up and making the suggestion would be intrusive. Depending on your situation, one thing that might be a possible way for you to support foster care/ adoption while not being able to do so yourself is to see if there is a way you can volunteer. There may be opportunities for you to volunteer either to support existing foster families or in a capacity of helping to recruit foster parents.