Inaugural Every Child Matters webinar for the Child Welfare League of Canada and the Canadian Foster Family Association.
ABSTRACT: In common with other western English-speaking countries, foster family recruitment is a major issue for Canadian provinces and territories. Demographic and other societal changes over the last 25 years have led to a decrease in the pool of people with both the motivation and capability to foster, while in many jurisdictions the need and demand for foster care has never been higher. With a particular focus upon research from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, this webinar will critically explore in a very accessible way, the current research evidence on what has been found to "work” in relation to foster family recruitment. As well as examining specific recruitment methods, a strong focus of the presentation will be the research on how agencies can more broadly manage their recruitment efforts in order to ensure that they have sufficient foster families to meet the needs of their children and young people.