Foster Care

What is Treatment Foster Care?

“Treatment Foster Care is a distinct, powerful, and unique model of care that provides children with a combination of the best elements of traditional foster care and residential treatment centers. In Treatment Foster Care, the positive aspects of the nurturing and therapeutic family environment are combined with active and structured treatment. Treatment Foster Programs provide, in a clinically effective and cost-effective way, individualized and intensive treatment for children and adolescents who would otherwise be placed in institutional settings."
Foster Family-based Treatment Association

Foster Care Home Application DOC

• Program Goals
• Becoming a Professional Treatment Care Foster Parent
• Foster Parent Qualifications
• Treatment Foster Care FAQs
• Guardianship
• Fresh Start History
• Reporting Suspected Maltreatment

Fresh Start Foster Care Program Goals:

• To recruit and therapeutically train foster parents who will provide loving, safe, and nurturing homes

• To reunite children with their birth families or relatives when appropriate

• To help facilitate legal permanency through adoption or guardianship when appropriate

• To teach the skills needed to emancipate successfully into independent adult living

5 Easy Steps to Becoming a Professional Treatment Foster Parent

Step 1: Complete Required Documentation

To become a licensed foster parent you will be required to fill out several documents including the initial application. These documents are required by State regulations, or by the agency. Foster parenting requires that parents document the behavior of their foster children, and share this information with the child's social worker. We evaluate your documents for completeness and timeliness for submittal back to our office, as part of our screening process. This ensures that you have the required organizational skills to be a Fresh Start United Care certified foster parent.

Step 2: Screening Process

Foster parent regulations require that all prospective foster parents obtain a State and Federal fingerprint investigation clearance, and a clear check from the Child Abuse Index, prior to having children placed in their home. We refer prospective foster parents to the appropriate agencies to obtain required clearances and provide information needed to complete the process.

Step 3: Attend Foster Parent Training's

Fresh Start’s training program to prepare foster parents is a total of 18 hours of training. Training's are held on some weeknights from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm, and weekends from 10:00 am to noon. Shortly thereafter, participants will receive a certificate of completion. Please note that training hours will be given on individual basis; couples can not share initial or on-going hours.

Step 4: Attend an Orientation

Anyone wishing to become a licensed foster parent with Fresh Start must attend an orientation conducted by the agency. The purpose of the orientation is to inform prospective foster parents about foster care and how the foster care system works, the role Fresh Start agency, and expectations of foster parents. Orientation sessions are held on weekday evenings and last approximately 2.5 hours depending on the number of participants.

Step 5: Pass a Home Inspection/Home Study

Once a prospective foster parent has completed foster parent training, passed the training examination, received a certificate of completion, and submitted all required documentation, a home inspection will be scheduled and conducted. The home inspection ensures your home is kid-safe, meets all State licensing requirements, and is ready to receive children. It also allows us the opportunity to visit your home to evaluate your homemaking skills, and determine the exact number of children your home will be allowed to supervise. Once approved, a Home-study Report will be issued with a recommendation for licensure or denial.

Foster Parent Qualifications

• Willing to attend 18 hours of specialized Foster Parent Training

• Capable of providing a safe and nurturing home environment

• Willing to support reunification of children with birth families

• Open to possible guardianship or adoption if appropriate

• Willing to support emancipation goals of teenage foster youth

• Meet a minimal financial capability standard

• Able to clear a battery of criminal background checks

• Pass a basic health screening

• Be 21 years of age or older with a valid WI driver's license

Treatment Foster Care FAQs

What are the qualifications for foster parenting? You must be 21 years or older, have a car, car insurance, proof of a reliable source of income, and live in Milwaukee, Racine, Waukesha or Kenosha Counties. Your home should have adequate space, which means an extra furnished bedroom.

How long will a foster child stay in my home? Depending on the circumstances of the child coming into care, it can range from short term to long term care.

What about medical coverage for foster children? All of the children placed have medical, dental, and vision coverage through Medicaid.

Are foster parents ever able to adopt their foster children? Yes. Many foster children have as a case goal outcome, permanency planning. The permanency planning case goal outcome usually means that the courts have determined that the best outcome for these children would be adoption or guardianship in a permanent family setting. There is a great need for foster parents to adopt children who have been cleared for adoption.

What is guardianship?

Guardianship is a permanency planning outcome that establishes a “permanent guardianship” relationship between the foster child and the guardian. Like adoption, foster parents are usually considered first to provide guardianship to foster children placed in their care, especially when a bond has been established between the foster child and the foster parent.

How long does the process take to have children placed in my home? It all depends on how soon you can complete all of the requirements. A reasonable time expectation would be about 60-days after submitting a completed application.

Do you have to own a home to be a foster parent? No. Foster parents can live in an apartment or home rental as long as they have the required living space.

Do I have to be married? No. You can be single, married, divorced, or legally separated.

Our History

Fresh Start Counseling Center, Inc. was incorporated in February 2003, initially providing mental health services to adults and children. Later, we were licensed as a child placing agency by the State of Wisconsin providing services to Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare and WrapAround Milwaukee children and families. Today, we sponsor three group homes in Milwaukee, WI, providing care and supervision to girls 13 -18 years of age and a full-service therapeutic foster care agency. Over the past four years we have extended premium service to over 300 clients.

For more information about joining Fresh Start’s Foster Family, contact Shaun Obey at (414) 431-0821 ext. 103 or click here to send him an email.

How to Report Suspected Child Maltreatment

Anyone can report suspected child abuse or neglect. Reporting abuse or neglect can protect a child and get help for a family—it may even save a child's life.

Child Protection Service is a local organization that provides crisis assistance to children and families in crisis. The Child Protection Service hotline is staffed 24-hours a day, 7-days a week.

All calls are anonymous. If you suspect a child is being abused or neglected or if you are a child who is being maltreated, contact your local child protective services office by dialing (414) 220-7233 or a law enforcement agency, so professionals can assess the situation.