WVC’s Foster and Kinship Care Program Offers Training, Support to Foster Families

 The Foster and Kinship Care Education Program at West Valley College offers courses on various parenting topics, from discipline to health and safety as they apply to foster children.  The program’s mission is to provide educational training to foster and kinship care families so the providers can meet the unique educational, emotional and developmental needs of children in the foster care system.

West Valley College has offered the Foster and Kinship Care Program to families in Santa Clara County since 1986.

“The FKCE program is different than an academic program,” said Donna Erickson, program manager. “It’s very community oriented, being offered throughout the county from Palo Alto to Gilroy, and in four languages, English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Tagalog.”

One of 63 such programs across the state, West Valley’s serves about 400 licensed foster homes and approximately 600 kinship care providers throughout Santa Clara County.  The program typically provides about 1,100 total hours of training per year.

Initial training provided to perspective or licensed foster parents is comprised of 27 hours and covers, issues regarding abuse and neglect, typical and arrested child development, cultural considerations, behavior and discipline, as well as understanding the juvenile dependency process and working with county partners.  Additionally, licensed foster parents are required to attend on-going classes annually which may include, parenting traumatized children, caring for medically fragile infants, domestic violence, specialized adolescent care, healthy eating and obesity prevention, home health and safety, and anger management. Parents attend classes specific to their needs and the needs of the children in their care.  These classes are taught by instructors and facilitators who are knowledgeable about these topics.  All classes/trainings are free to the participants.

“It’s very supportive for the families to be in trainings with other families who might be facing the same challenges,” Erickson said. “They get a tremendous amount of support from one another and are able to share and explore common concerns”.

WVC President Lori Gaskin said the program not only addresses the needs of the providers themselves but also serves as a gateway to providing higher education to the foster care population.

“One of the hallmarks of the community college is that we see education as very holistic and very broad-based,” Gaskin said. “We recognize that those who seek to access to the educational programs we provide may be non-traditional or may have had barriers in the past. What we try to do is strip away any barriers and provide a web of support and this is so apparent in the Foster and Kinship Care Program that we have the honor of providing.”