Fostering Relationships

Fostering Relationships programs are designed to aid staff who support pregnant or parenting teens and transitional age foster youth. This web-based curriculum and toolkit introduces key, well-established psychological theories in a readily-accessible format, and provides a simple and practical framework for their use. By providing a web-based solution, we aim to cost-effectively and significantly extend our support network to these highly-vulnerable populations and the frontline workers who care for them. CLICK HERE to order materials now.

Fostering Transitions materials aid direct service providers who support transitional-age foster youth.

Nurturing Parents materials aid direct service providers who support pregnant and parenting teens. 

By visiting fosteringtransitions.org and registering to use the site, you'll find the corresponding User's Guide, 8-Week Program, and Case Examples for both curricula. Additionally, registered users gain access to the Member Forum, where you can connect with colleagues and look for expert advice from guest clinicians. 

+ (Summer 2012) Vital Touch teaches vulnerable parent-infant pairs to use massage as direct and effective means of developing neurological regulation for both parent and infant. The program focuses on developing the parent’s capacity to read infant cues and the pair’s capacity to regulate stress, while fostering healthy emotional and physical development in the infant. This program is currently being run at the San Francisco Courthouse in conjunction and with thanks to the Drug Dependency Court, Zero to Three Court Teams, Jelani House and Walden House; it will soon be available as a curriculum for national distribution at fosteringtransitions.org.

+ (Winter 2012) Fostering Art students work collaboratively to share their stories and their art with the world outside the foster care system – and enhance their self-respect in the process. The program helps current and former foster youth to build hard skills in photography, while also recognizing and addressing the personal histories of its participants. Fostering Art builds trusting relationships between participants and staff, and youth receive both clear expectations and the support they need to achieve their goals. Course instructors focus on the healthy development of the youth without ignoring the difficulties they have experienced. Those who grow up in foster care often are neither seen nor heard. In  The San Francisco pilot program recently published an anthology, "Fostering Art: 2003-2011" and will be available as a 'program-in-a-box' for national distribution at fosteringtransitions.org.