There is a growing need for families to open their hearts and homes to children who have been removed from their biological families. Foster parents provide a temporary family for children until they can be reunited with their families. The reasons for the temporary placement vary from abandonment to abuse and neglect, but the fact remains --- these young people desperately need a loving foster home.  If you have an interest in helping to provide for children in our community, please email OFS or call Oakland Family Services 248-858-7766.

Adoptive parents provide permanent families for children who do not have families of their own.  When children who are in foster care and the court determines that they cannot return home, the children are most frequently adopted by their current foster parents or relatives.  OFS staff can help you to decide if foster care and/or adoption is right for you and your family.

OFS believes that foster care is a service to our most vulnerable children and placement of children in qualified foster homes is our highest goal. The agency believes that all children have a right to a family, and foster parents are a substitute family for a while, until problem situations are resolved.  The agency believes that foster parents are key members of an interdisciplinary team, which works in harmony to meet the needs of children. 

Foster parenting is both a responsibility and an opportunity.  Foster parenting is looked upon as a high form of community service and can be one of the most gratifying personal experiences of your life.

Who qualifies as a foster parent? 

• Any person at least 18 years or older who:
• Has a safe and stable home environment
• Understands the needs of chiildren and can provide love
• Has good emontional and physical health
• Couples or single adults may be foster parents
• Foster parent may reside in an apartment, mobile home or single family home.

• All members of the foster family must be committed to taking on the extra responsibility of foster children.  They must be willing to participate in a family assessment, become licensed through the State and follow the licensing rules of the State
• Foster parents begin the process through attending one of our monthly foster parent orientation meetings
• Foster parents receive pre-service education as well as ongoing training.
• Foster families need to be flexible enough to accommodate weekly "parenting time" visits between the child and the biological family, which usually occur at the agency.
• Foster families bring the foster child for counseling appointments.

• Can I help a child understand why he/she cannot live at home?
• Can I accept the fact that a foster child will eventually leave my home?
• Can I work with the child's treatment team?
• Can I contribute to the effort to return a child home?
• Can my own children accept other children in our home?