I Need Help Supporting a Kinship Foster Family. Who Can I Call?
You have identified family. The placement makes sense. The caregiver wants to step forward.
Now they need support.
For a DSS worker carrying a full caseload, the challenge is not knowing that support matters. It has sufficient capacity to address every aspect of the case while still managing safety, court, permanency, parents, siblings, and the child’s broader case.
Keep roles clear
LDSS retains its statutory responsibilities and case decisions.
ESP’s role is to work with foster and resource families around the caregiver side of the journey. That includes preparation, training, resource family casework, and ongoing support within ESP’s services and placement relationships.
Clear roles create a better partnership.
Refer before a crisis
Do not wait until the caregiver is threatening to end the placement.
Early support helps families understand expectations, identify practical barriers, and build a relationship with people they can contact when something changes.
That is particularly important for kinship families who did not have a long recruitment runway.
Use the existing relationship as a strength
The caregiver already knows the child.
Support should not try to turn them into a generic foster parent. It should help them add foster-care knowledge, boundaries, and skills to a relationship that already matters.
That is a very different starting point.
ESP is built around foster family support
Extra Special Parents has served Virginia foster children and families since 2006. The organization supports a large network of resource families and provides 24/7/365 support, foster parent preparation, and community-based services.
For child welfare professionals, that means a partner focused on strengthening the family around the placement.
Where Extra Special Parents fit
If you are supporting a Virginia kinship family and need another team around the caregiver, contact Extra Special Parents and let us know where the family is in their journey.