As someone who works in foster care and adoption, Dr. Candice Matthews knows the importance of providing good home environments for foster children. Foster care involves placing kids with families when their parents are unable to give them the proper care. As a foster family, you could be the children’s relatives or people who the child has only recently met.
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Fostering Helps Parents in Recovery
Sometimes, a parent needs to put their child in foster care because they have an addiction to alcohol or another substance. By providing care to the child, you allow the parent to make a full recovery so they can be a more present parent on the other side of their addiction journey. Matthews and others who work with foster families want to see the children, caretakers, and parents of the child all work together and help each other succeed.
Fostering Provides Stability
Not having the same adult to care for them throughout their formative years can be difficult for a child. However, foster care provides young people with stability that they might not have otherwise. Children who live with a foster family can make friends at school, participate in sports and other activities, and potentially even have the opportunity to live with other kids in the home, who become like siblings to the child. Children who are in the foster care system have often experienced neglect or abuse during their young lives, so the supervision and stability provided by foster care are crucial to their growth and development.
Fostering Provides Opportunities
Dr. Matthews understands that the additional opportunities provided to children are one of the most important aspects of fostering. Families who take in children from the foster care system are often better able to provide opportunities to the kids than their parents are at the time. For example, your family might have the means and time to transport children to and from activities such as soccer practice and piano lessons. You might also have more time to spend with the children, which is essential for building trust and feelings of safety for a young person.
If you are considering fostering a child, please understand the unique challenges and benefits of this endeavor.
Dr. Candice Matthews Bio
Dr. Candice Matthews is the CEO of the Children of Diversity Foster Adoption Agency, which is located in the cities of Houston and Beaumont, Texas. She is very active in her community, chairing the Texas Statewide Steering Committee for the Rainbow Push Coalition, a civil rights organization, as well as the Texas Statewide Vice Chair Texas Coalition Of Black Democrats, National Minister of Politics, The New Black Panther Nation.
Through her important work in these organizations, Dr. Matthews seeks equality and justice for people of color.