Foster care intake group procedure

The objective for Foster Care Intake Group:

-    Equip our new foster parents with knowledge of a foster care placement;
-     Give them basic information and insight into the Children’s Act;
-    To raise awareness on the expectations of our organisation as far as foster parents’ responsibilities are concerned.

This training takes place every first Friday of every month and is presented by a social worker and is assisted by an auxiliary social worker or student social worker.  It is a three hour session and the average attendees in the past was 8 newly identified prospective foster parents.  The session includes the following aspects for discussion:
-    Intake process (documents needed; forms to complete; etc.)
-    Court Procedure
-    Application for the foster care grant
-    Foster care review
-    Foster care transfers
-    Rights and responsibilities of the foster parent/s
-    Rights and responsibilities of the social worker
-    Rights and responsibilities of the child
 

 Foster parent support group

The objective of this group is to empower the foster parents with knowledge in order to ensure that they can manage the day to day requirements and challenges of foster parenting.  This will also be a platform where questions are answered, complaints are lodged and challenges are addressed. 50 foster parents attend our support group once a month.  These group work sessions are presented by social workers with the assistance of either auxiliary social workers or student social workers.  The sessions are conducted every first Wednesday of each month at The Greater Benoni Child Welfare Offices in Daveyton between 10h00 and 12h00.

The following topics are addressed in these meetings:
-    Assessment of the foster parent’s needs;
-    Budgeting;
-    Anger Management;
-    Developmental stages of children;
-    How to manage children with behavioural problems;
-    Nutritional and Health related issues;
-    Addiction;
-    Sustainable livelihood and empowerment programmes;
-    Children’s rights and responsibilities;
-    Parenting skills;
-    Disciplining children and age appropriate chores;
-    Year end function where each attendee received a certificate

 

Parental guidance group

A parental guidance group was started at The Greater Benoni Child Welfare as a need was identified as our clients could not afford to attend specialised programmes at other organisations.   It was started of in having on or two sessions per year – depending on the parent volumes and demand. Other NGO’s also started to refer clients to us and currently we offer this programme / group / service every quarter.  It is currently conducted once every quarter for 10 sessions, usually on a Friday morning between 08h30 and 09h30 at the Greater Benoni Child Welfare offices, in order to ensure that the clients can still resume work afterwards.  A social worker present the groups assisted by an auxiliary social worker or a student social worker.  

The following topics are addressed in these group sessions:
-    Needs assessment and introduction to parenting skills;
-    The role of the social worker and other professionals;
-    Who am I? (Who were you before you became a parent, wife, husband, etc.);
-    The Child (Developmental stages; childhood illnesses and health; nutrition; puberty and sex)
-    The Child (Emotional development; discipline; punishment; values; communication; relationship building, etc.)
-    What is a parent. (Maslow hierarchy of needs; dimensions of parenting; parenting patterns; principles of love and logic; love languages, etc.)
-   Parenting skills development (ways to improve parenting; children’s rights and responsibilities; parents responsibilities; kinds of abuse; factors influencing parenting; etc.)
-    The family as a whole
-    Problem solving – individual and as a family;
-    Final session where evaluation forms are completed and attendees receive a certificate of attendance.

Teenager group

The objective of this group is to empower the foster children between the ages of 12 and 16 years  with information in order to ensure that they remain in school and do not become pregnant or involved in gangs.  The sessions are conducted once a week during school holidays between 10h00 and 12h00 at the Greater Benoni Child Welfare offices in Daveyton.  

The following topics will be addressed in these meetings:
-    Assessment of the foster children’s needs;
-    Substance Abuse
-    Teenage Pregnancy
-    HIV and Aids
-    Life Skills
-    Future and career planning
-   Personality evaluation