The requirements for foster care licensure/adoption certification:
• Must be at least 21 years of age and obtain a DPS Fingerprint Clearance Card.
• We accept single providers, renters or homeowners, same-sex couples, and families of all backgrounds. We are willing to work with anyone who can provide a safe, and loving home for children in need.
• We do not have breed restrictions on pets, as long as they are friendly and rabies vaccinated.
Turn in application and assessment guide (above) to: [email protected]
We will then schedule an initial home visit to meet you, send you instructions on how to obtain a fingerprint clearance card, and go over licensing paperwork, answer all questions, and schedule you for training. The training is blended, half-online, and half in-person.
There is not out of pocket expense to obtain a foster care license with the State of Arizona while working for Neighborhood Ministries. We have three different levels of engagement that would allow you to be compensated to be a full-time, part-time, or nightly caregiver for a population of children actively looking for love, hope, and support.
Compensation starts at $1,000/week for full-time caregivers. Organizational support from Neighborhood Ministries allows the “village” to come together to help our foster families.
Apply now to speak to a team member about Fostering at Neighborhood Ministries!
This orientation video explains the need for foster parents in Arizona, the steps on becoming licensed in Arizona, tips for choosing a foster care agency, and it explains some of the realities of foster care. More information can always be found at www.azdcs.gov. It is not mandatory to watch this video. Please feel free to just pick up the phone and give us a call and we’ll be happy to explain foster care licensing and answer any and all questions you may have. More information can found at: https://dcs.az.gov/foster.
It is a requirement that HCSPs must be licensed for children ages 0-17. It is not guaranteed that you will only have specific children in your home; the placement team takes your preferences into consideration when making their decisions. It is your responsibility to maintain an open conversation with the HCSP Coordinator and the licensing agency about your current needs and limitations.
Yes, but we don’t recommend it. Becoming a foster parent is a challenging endeavor; the children we receive often have traumas that require an optimal level of commitment on your end. Fostering is a demanding job of its own. It is an expectation that regardless of whether you have a second job or not, you will provide the highest standard of care that is appropriate to match the needs of our children.
Employment is contingent upon the receipt of a state foster care license. We partner with licensing agencies that guide you through the entire process and are available to answer all your licensing-related questions. The process is mostly self-paced and is composed of minimum applicant qualifications, Foster Parent College completion, references, and an extensive Life Safety Inspection. Once the Life Safety Inspection is submitted for approval, the average wait for the license is currently 45 days. The whole process takes our parents an average of 5 months from Application to Placement.
Yes, we have families for all different dynamics. As long as you are able to attain a foster care license, you are eligible to become a HCSP. Children come with all kinds of needs, some of which will benefit from the 1:1 supervision a single HCSP can provide.
Every child has an individualized treatment team consisting of at least a case manager, clinician, educator, and dedicated medical staff to support the social-emotional, mental, and physical well-being of the child. This staff regularly meets with the child and is accessible to you for guidance on how to best contribute to the child’s development. You will also have direct support from the HCSP Coordinator on a 24-hour basis, 7-days a week.
Most foster parents have biological or adopted children, our programs are not the exception. The placement process is a methodical system in which the household makeup is one of the many factors taken into consideration when our placement team considers where to place a child. When a child is placed in a home in which other children reside, it is because the child will fit well into that household.
Room assignments and sleeping arrangements for every foster child must be safe above all else. We follow state regulations when placing children; this means the child’s age, gender, special needs, behavior, and history of abuse or neglect are taken into consideration when deciding if the child can share a room.
The children who come into both of our programs often bring with them traumas from a history of abuse, abandonment, or separation. Our children are less likely to trust anyone at first and may have displaced anger, often feeling isolated and abandoned. Their behavior can at times present as unpredictable.
During our two-week New Employee Orientation, HCSPs will learn and get to practice our behavioral management program, Therapeutic Crisis Intervention for Families. TCIF is a program to provide all staff with the skillsets to help a child who has had a difficult start in life from a trauma-informed care perspective.
Yes, however, it will still be your responsibility to ensure transportation for the child’s required visits, events, and routinary activities. Examples include, but are not limited to: school pick up and drop off, medical visits, clinical visits, sport trainings, religious practices, etc.
Most children can travel out of the county and out of the state with their foster families. There is a process in which a HCSP must provide sufficient notice to the program of an upcoming trip. If the request is approved, the child’s individualized treatment team will provide the HCSP with instructions to ensure the continuous care of the child outside of the home for the duration of the trip.
In our transitional foster care, we provide a safe, temporary home to unaccompanied migrant children while we work on their reunification with family or sponsors in the U.S. The average length of stay for the children in our transitional foster care program is currently 17 days.
In our long-term foster care, we provide a home for unaccompanied migrant children who have been permanently separated from their families. This type of foster care is also known as permanent fostering-as it provides a more permanent consistency to young unaccompanied children who are unlikely to return to their families.
The average length of stay for our long-term foster care program is currently unavailable since we are a new program. Statistics show that the average length of stay in the US foster care system is 15.5 months. Ours has ranged from 1 month to over 5 months for the children who are still with us. However, a long-term foster placement implies the child can remain in the home until reaching the age of 18.
The children who come into both of our programs often bring with them traumas from a history of abuse, abandonment, or separation. Our children are less likely to trust anyone at first and may have displaced anger, often feeling isolated and abandoned. Their behavior can at times present as unpredictable.
During our two-week New Employee Orientation, HCSPs will learn and get to practice our behavioral management program, Therapeutic Crisis Intervention for Families. TCIF is a program to provide all staff with the skillsets to help a child who has had a difficult start in life from a trauma-informed care perspective.
Children in our transitional foster care program are introduced to the families by our Center Resource Ambassadors, who drive the children to their designated home after their intake.
Children in our long-term care program are shown a presentation of the foster family during an initial interview to ensure the placement will be a good fit.
In the first two weeks of employment, HCSPs will learn about the history of Neighborhood Ministries and the general structure of the programs we are composed of.
The third and fourth weeks of employment are when HCSPs will learn the reporting processes and organizational structure of our foster care programs specifically.
All adult household members living in the home are required to obtain a fingerprint clearance card and undergo a criminal history background check before an initial foster license is awarded. Adult household members must maintain said valid fingerprint clearance card for the foster care license to remain active.
HCSPs may select an adult outside of the household, using careful and sensible judgement, to provide short-term care or supervision that is not routine, for a length of time that does not exceed 24 hours in a nonemergency and 72 hours in an emergency.
We offer three pay structures to meet different household needs. The HCSP positions available include Staff, Contracted, and Bed Night Stipend. The qualifying factors for each position depend on the number of bedrooms and beds a foster parent has available for the children in our program.
