Healing for today. Hope for tomorrow. Treatment Foster Parents and What They Do

At Anu Family Services, we understand that youth who have experienced trauma and have been disconnected from their family need a family's safety to heal.  We need families committed and compassionate enough to stick by youth while they heal their past experiences.

We need parents who are caring, patient, and flexible. Parents who will...

• Tell kids that we see them and hear them.
• Create space for the children to tell their story while listening (they cannot process when we are talking).
• Let kids tell their own story and be the boss of their own grief work. 
• Help youth understand that they deserve a safe and caring home.
• Help youth understand their trauma-triggers and trauma-responses and provide tools to release the trauma.
• Help youth understand the connection between their current behavior and their past experiences.
• Respond to pain-based behaviors in the present moment.
• Use interventions that connect, not disconnect.
• Understand that pain-based behaviors are often trauma-responses.
• Understand that punishing, shaming, and blaming exacerbate trauma.
• Understand that many behaviors are developmentally appropriate and are normal, healthy responses to grief
• Help youth feel safe.
• Provide consistent, repetitive, healing responses.
• Help them connect with those they’ve loved and lost and build strong networks of support.
• Take care of themselves so that they can be a great caregiver!

If you know someone who does these things... refer them to Anu Family Services!