A San Diego Fostering Network
We are a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing safe, stable, loving homes for infants and toddlers in foster care throughout San Diego County.
OUR MISSION
To passionately and collaboratively care for children five and younger with diverse and exceptional families who dedicate themselves to each child’s wellbeing. Angels Family Foster Network is dedicated to ensuring infants and toddlers in foster care throughout San Diego County get the best start in life. We work with the San Diego County Department of Child Welfare Services and are licensed by the State of California as a Foster Family Agency (FFA) CCL #374603866, but we are an independent charitable organization which allows us to do things quite differently from traditional foster care.
OUR HISTORY
Angels was founded in 1998 by Cathy Richman, who served for five years as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer with the San Diego County foster system. A visionary leader, Cathy saw ways to improve the lives of young children placed in foster care.
She believed children were best served when they were with one family until permanency was determined by the County of San Diego or the juvenile court. Brain and cognitive research support what Cathy knew instinctively – infants and toddlers need time to form attachments to adults and moving from family to family in foster care denies them the opportunity to form deep and meaningful attachments with adults. Additionally, she felt that infants and toddlers in foster care needed and deserved focused time and attention, so she established the expectation that each Angels family would care for only one child, or siblings, at a time.
Out of Cathy’s vision, the first child was placed with a Resource Family in 1999. We are grateful to Cathy for her wonderful service to the community and for the positive impact she made in the lives of so many children and families.
Who we are and how Angels is different from traditional foster care
We are led, staffed and governed by former Resource Parents and children in care.
We primarily serve children ages birth to five, a critically essential time of physical, emotional, and cognitive development.
We are a nonprofit charity, licensed as a Foster Family Agency (FFA) (CCL #374603866) by the State of California and operate in partnership with the Child Welfare Services Department of the County of San Diego.
We willingly accept ALL qualified persons / families able to provide appropriate bedroom and living space to a child(ren).
We strongly promote family reunification where Resource Families serve as a partner to the parents and extended family of the child(ren).
We place only one child or sibling set per Resource Family – while preserving birth order of all the children in the home.
We provide safe, stable, loving and trauma informed family home environments where secure attachment and bonding between child(ren) and adult caregiver flourish.
For children 18 months of age and younger, they require consistency of care from one adult in approved Resource Family Home
We require newly approved Resource Families demonstrate their ability to provide trauma informed care through temporary respite care (up to 14 days) to a child currently in care with Angels.
All our clinical staff are licensed as a marriage family therapist (LMFT) or clinical social worker (LCSW) or actively pursuing professional licensure.
Our Resource Families willingly commit to care for the child(ren) until a permanent outcome is decided by the Juvenile Court and County.
We support and collaborate with our Resource Families via weekly visits ensuring their commitment to provide a safe, stable, and loving family home environment endures the challenges of fostering.