WAFTS

Is a Washington State Non-Profit Association that has provided training, support and advocacy for private Treatment / Therapeutic Foster Care providers and the agencies that support them for more than 18 years. WAFTS acts as a liaison between private and public agencies.

OUR MISSION

The Washington Association of Family-based Treatment Services (WAFTS) provides a voice for private agency foster care providers, which it has done for more than 18 years. WAFTS advocates for the recognition, support, and enhancement of family-based treatment for children and adolescents, and for quality foster care.

WHO ARE WE? WHAT DO WE DO?

As a grassroots organization, WAFTS has worked to professionalize Treatment and Therapeutic Foster Parents, and to assist the private agencies supporting them. WAFTS has helped them to meet and exceed state and national standards for Treatment and Therapeutic Foster Care and Family Preservation Services.

WAFTS collaborates with public and private agencies in meeting these goals. In 1998, WAFTS teamed with the Mental Health Division, and sponsored the first Treatment Foster Care Conference. WAFTS has continued to provide trainings to meet the demands of treatment foster care providers, and the agencies that support them.

WAFTS provides professional trainings for foster care providers, social workers, and mental health professionals at the annual Foster Care Conference. Those trainings are the only trainings at the conference that are accredited for CEU's (Continuing Education Units) by Central Washington University. WAFTS has also provided those same accredited trainings regionally at WAFTS Institutes. WAFTS also provides local trainings for foster care providers, social workers and mental health professionals.

WAFTS holds quarterly providers meetings throughout the state to support and encourage providers to discuss regional issues concerning family-based treatment services, and to develop ways that WAFTS can assist those providers.

In keeping with WAFTS goal of meeting the needs of care providers and agencies supporting them, the WAFTS Board of Directors is composed of experienced private foster care providers, agency staff, supervisors and administrators representing all areas of Washington, urban and rural, east and west.

FOSTER CARE AND THE ROLE OF WAFTS:

On any given day, there are over 9,700 children living in foster care in Washington State. These figures increase by several thousand when you include children in relative/kinship care placements. These children need foster parents who are trained to deal with the most difficult and complex behaviors and issues. Some of these foster parents must learn to live with children who are violent, are drug affected, who have been sexually abused and who are abusers themselves. They are kids that have not been successfully maintained in the community. They are street kids, they have academic and learning problems, there may be issues with addiction, they have complex family of origin issues and in general they are the "throw away" kids of our state. These are children who challenge every fiber of a person's ability to parent, love and tolerate. These are kids who dare families to reject them and a foster parent must be well trained to live and work with them and to deal with their behaviors.

These children live in families that who provide treatment foster care. In conjunction with a team of highly trained social workers and therapists from private foster care agencies, these treatment foster parents work to help these young people through the traumas that have occurred in their lives and to give them a place to grow up. Treatment foster parents and staff require a higher, more intensive level of training than is often offered within the community. Many of the private agencies do not have the financial means to pay for foster parents to attend this level of training and there is very little training of this sort for foster parents who are licensed by the state. This grant would allow for approximately 240 foster parents and staff to attend and receive the training they need to help them provide the best possible care for the severely disturbed children residing in their homes. In addition, the State of Washington's Program Improvement Plan and the Settlement of the Braam Lawsuit, require foster parents to have improved training to deal with difficult children. The state does not have enough training resources or social work supports to meet all of the needs of the foster parents entrusted with the care of these children.

The training of, and for, these foster parents is critical in their development and knowledge that enables them to succeed with these kids. Research supports a positive connection between training of foster parents and quality of care for children in foster care. Regular foster parents are required to take 36 hours of training per licensing period, which is three years. Treatment foster parents are required to take 30 hours of training annually. This is almost three times the requirement for regular foster families..