As part of continued investments that protect some of the province’s most vulnerable children, the Manitoba government is expanding its partnership with the Manitoba Foster Family Network (MFFN) to provide foster parents more training and mentorship opportunities. This announcement was made by Family Services and Labour Minister Jennifer Howard.
“Foster families are essential partners in ensuring our children are safe and have the opportunity to live up to their potential,” Howard said. “These training and mentoring opportunities will strengthen the network of support for our more than 4,800 foster families and help ensure their continued success.”
The province is providing MFFN $78,000 to operate the program, which connects new foster parents with experienced foster parents to create a peer group and provides monthly workshops on a variety of topics including training and support for childhood development, fetal alcohol syndrome disorder and transitioning youth out of care.
“While every child is different, new foster parents gain from the experiences of long-term parents who know the challenges and the rewards of nurturing and protecting foster children,” said Cathy Wiebe, board chair, MFFN. “Work is already underway to train foster parents who will become mentors to be ready to work with new foster families in their communities this fall.”
The minister noted that almost 750 new families began the rewarding work of fostering children in Manitoba in the last year. With an annual increase of more than $1 million, effective Oct. 1, 2012, Manitoba foster families have seen the basic child maintenance rate increase by almost 25 per cent over the last five years.
More information on foster parenting is available at www.gov.mb.ca/fs/childfam/fostercare.html or by calling 1-888-995-JOIN (5646).
