Family foster care of minors

Family fostering is divided into two types: parental fostering and heterofamilial fostering. By parental fostering, we mean the fostering of a minor child to relatives of the original nucleus, while by heterofamilial fostering, we mean the fostering of a minor child to a couple or single person extraneous to the original family.

Parental fostering is managed by the Comunità di Valle, territorial social services, to which one must refer. Only in specific cases, upon precise indications of the Judicial Authority and/or the territorial social service, also the Multidisciplinary Team for Foster Care of Minors and Families (EMAMeF) of the Autonomous Province of Trento, deals with this type of fostering.

To obtain information and undertake heterofamilial fostering, on the other hand, it is necessary to contact the Multidisciplinary Team for Foster Care of Minors and Families (EMAMeF).

Family fostering of minors is an intervention aimed at ensuring responses to the emotional needs, maintenance, education and training of minors temporarily deprived of a suitable family environment.

The purpose of this intervention is both the support of the minor and the support towards his/her family of origin, through a joint work of all the actors involved.

Family fostering ensures the minor the right to a family that temporarily integrates or replaces the original one, with the objective of the child's return to his/her family unit.

Family fostering is temporary, planned, promoted and supported by the social services, sometimes prescribed by the Juvenile Court, sometimes with the consent of the family of origin. It may be full-time or part-time.

EMAMeF provides for the planning and management of family foster care interventions, from a multidisciplinary perspective, in cooperation with the private social services and the APSS. It uses a homogeneous methodological approach throughout the province with the presence of various professionals (social workers, psychologists, educators).

Family fostering ends when the child turns eighteen; there may be an administrative continuation (up to the age of 21) at the request of the social service, with the possibility of staying with the foster family.

Foster families may be supported with a financial contribution.

Couples with or without children, married or cohabiting, or even single persons, with no age restriction with respect to the entrusted child.

Applications may be submitted by couples or individuals.

Citizens interested in information on foster care can contact the Multidisciplinary Team Foster Care for Children and Families.

It is necessary to contact EMAMeF by telephone for an interview or a small group meeting with social workers who

- will answer questions posed by interested parties;

- will provide information on the organisation and the proposed pathway and will deliver the first illustrative material.

The foster family is identified by the Multidisciplinary Team for Fostering Minors and Families, following an information, assessment and knowledge pathway, usually consisting of three interviews with a social worker and a psychologist, a home visit, and an interview with any children of the prospective foster parents. This allows both EMAMeF to get to know all the family members and the prospective foster carers to understand the reality of the family of origin and their needs.

The process ends with a moment of restitution by the operators.

Subsequently, aspiring foster carers will be placed in groups, called support/learning groups, held monthly from September to May, made up of foster families and families willing to experience fostering, with the aim of enabling a comparison between those who are already living an experience and those who are imagining it and desiring it. In parallel with the adult groups, the couple's natural children/single parents and foster children are placed in homogeneous groups by age, in order to share the same experience.