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6 Ways You Can Help Foster Parents and Children in the Bay Area
(this list comes from Penguin’s Interview Page with Author and Foster Mom Kathy Harrison)
6 Ways You Can Help Foster Parents & Children in the Bay Area
1. Donate your children’s used toys, clothes, and books to foster homes in your area. Make sure the items are clean and in good condition.
2. If you own a business with goods or services that would be useful to foster families (ice-skating rink, restaurant, bookstore), offer free coupons or gift certificates. If you know others who own their own businesses, encourage them to do so. Compile books of coupons and gift certificates to offer to foster families.
3. Become a respite provider. With only thirty hours of training, you can take in foster kids for several days or weeks a year so that foster parents can go on vacation (or simply take a break).
4. Offer to be a babysitter for foster children. (You will be required to undergo a criminal background check.)
5. Call your local YMCA and other community recreation centers and encourage them to provide free memberships to foster kids.
6. Call your local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and ask if they might donate uniforms to, and waive fees for, foster kids who want to join.