Fostering or providing kinship care to support children and families is meaningful, yet also highly demanding work. Caring for children who have experienced loss or trauma requires more than love alone. It requires support, consistency, and community. That’s where Care Communities come in.
A Care Team is a group of 8-10 people who willingly offer practical, relational, and emotional support to foster families. This might look like meals after a particularly busy or rough day, help with transportation, childcare support, yard work, or simply checking in and showing up when things feel heavy—which they inevitably will.
Care Teams are designed to support you so you can focus on caring for the children in your home. They are not caseworkers. They are not decision-makers. They are not there to judge or fix you. They are there to help carry the load.
As a foster family, you juggle appointments for court, therapy and doctors. You navigate family time with biological families (visits), do paperwork, meet the emotional needs of all the children in your home as well as your own emotional needs, and handle the everyday realities of family life—all while trying to help children feel safe and connected. Doing this alone can lead to exhaustion and burnout. I feel exhausted just writing about it!
Care Communities help by:
- Reducing isolation
- Sharing everyday responsibilities
- Providing consistent encouragement
- Supporting placement stability and family well-being
When you are supported, children experience more stability—and healing happens more naturally.
Let’s Clear Up a Few Myths
Myth: “If I need a Care Team, I must be struggling or failing.”
Truth: Needing support does not mean you are failing—it means you are human. Foster and kinship care can be hard and were never meant to be done alone.
Myth: “A Care Team will interfere with how I parent.”
Truth: You remain the decision-maker. You choose what support looks like, when it’s offered, and what boundaries are in place.
Myth: “I’ll lose my privacy.”
Truth: You control what you share. Healthy care teams are built on trust, respect, and confidentiality.
Myth: “Care Teams are unreliable or short-term.”
Truth: Strong care teams are intentionally organized and coordinated, offering consistent support—not just one-time help. A care team typically serves one foster family for 6-12 months.
Myth: “I don’t want to be a burden.”
Truth: Allowing others to help is not “being a burden”—it gives people a meaningful way to serve and strengthens the circle around your family.
Myth: “I have to pay money for a Care Team.”
Truth: This program is volunteer based, and there is no financial obligation to participate.
Care Communities reflect a powerful truth: Children heal best when you as a foster parent are supported. We are stronger together—and no foster family should have to carry this work alone.
We at Utah Foster Care wish that every family who fosters could have the support of a care team. Care teams will be offered to families as they become available in your area.
