Support Foster Families this Spring
At The Mockingbird Society, we believe that all young people deserve to be part of a community that cares. Being a parent or a child in the foster care system is hard and families need a reliable, knowledgeable, and caring community to lean on when times get tough. Our MOCKINGBIRD FAMILY™ model creates a caring community to support children and parents impacted by child welfare. It’s the extended family they can rely on.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
The MOCKINGBIRD FAMILY™ model is part of the solution to achieving The Mockingbird Society’s mission of transforming foster care and ending youth homelessness. By supporting The Mockingbird Society this spring, you are supporting the work we do creating and advocating for racially equitable, healthy environments that support young people experiencing foster care or homelessness.
Can we rely on you to support Mockingbird this spring?
About Mockingbird Family™
PROBLEM – Foster Families Unsupported
Unfortunately, for the majority of foster families, a connected, supportive community doesn’t exist. In the United States, only 25% of newly licensed foster parents continue fostering beyond 2 years. That means that most child welfare agencies lose up to 60% of their foster parents, annually.
SOLUTION – An Alternative Model
It doesn’t have to be this way – and the solution is right here, with Mockingbird’s extended-family foster care model, MOCKINGBIRD FAMILY™. A recently released three-year study of Mockingbird Families in the United Kingdom found that Mockingbird Families were 82% less likely to stop fostering than those in traditional foster care.
How it Works
MOCKINGBIRD FAMILY™ is an innovative foster care model that creates an extended family network made up of local foster families and experienced foster parents that support one another. This network helps to support, develop, and retain quality foster families so they can meet the challenging and complex needs of children and young people experiencing foster care.
The design provides a framework and opportunity for communities to come together in support of young people. Foster families are valued and retained, youth thrive, and communities strengthen their support around children and families to keep them connected.
MOCKINGBIRD FAMILY™:
⦁ Creates a community of foster families and experienced foster parents that functions like an extended family
⦁ Keeps kids in their home community
⦁ Provides readily available support for parents and kids
THE RESULTS – THRIVING FAMILIES
MOCKINGBIRD FAMILY™ is doing what it was intended to do – create community within the child welfare system. The proof is in the results:
⦁ Mockingbird Families have higher levels of wellbeing than both other foster families and even families from the general population.
⦁ Children and young people report stronger social networks, saying they feel they are “an important part of their community.”
⦁ And siblings stay connected with a majority of Mockingbird Family youth reporting they have “just the right amount” of time with their siblings.
When we say, “we are family,” we mean it. Our supporters are part of our family, and we couldn’t do the work of transforming foster care and ending youth homelessness without you.
Please consider giving a gift in support of The Mockingbird Society this spring. You can help families and youth in your community today by making a gift to transform foster care.