Highly motivated couples and individuals who demonstrate sufficient skills, competencies, commitment, and energy to work with children and adolescents with Severe Emotional Disturbances (SED) are recruited to serve as Therapeutic Resource Homes. The families who volunteer to provide their homes for TFC are passionate about helping children, and they are highly motivated to see their children succeed.

Foster parents must be at least 21 years of age or older and be in good physical health. They are thoroughly screened with fingerprinting, background checks, and sex offender registry checks. Each home is visited by Canopy’s TFC staff to ensure the home is a safe environment.

What Foster Parents Can Expect

Our most successful foster parents are open-minded, dependable, patient, and willing to try different parenting styles for children with different needs. Becoming a foster parent involves Canopy staff making several visits to your home to become acquainted with you and your family and to ensure that your home is safe for fostering. During those visits, Canopy will gather paperwork, interview all family members, inspect the home for safety, and fully explain the responsibilities of foster parenting. In-office or at-home training is also required prior to approval. Our screening process helps match foster parents with the child that best fits your family’s lifestyle and ability.

A unique feature of the program is in-home service delivery. We have professional staff to facilitate linkages to school systems and other community resources, and they also provide crisis intervention to foster families and children. Each family receives an individualized, strengths-based, family-focused and culturally sensitive treatment plan.

Do You Offer Financial Compensation?

Yes, compensation is provided to cover room and board costs as well as daycare of foster children. Foster parents are paid $45 for each night a therapeutic foster child stays in their home. This payment covers expenses such as food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and recreation. It is not to be considered income.

In addition to the daily per-diem, Canopy will provide $80 per month for additional clothing needs for each child and a monthly allowance for each child. In the case of a sibling placement, two or more brothers or sisters, the daily per-diem is $25 for each additional child. All medical costs are covered by Medicaid or other state providers. Canopy does not have a minimum income requirement. However, your income must be earned and should meet the financial needs of your family.

What Kind of Help Do TFC Parents Receive?

Canopy maintains frequent, consistent contact with foster families. Canopy offers support to foster care parents 24 hours a day. A Canopy therapist will meet with your foster child once a week, and with the family unit twice-monthly. The TFC specialist will visit your home once a month and will also provide monthly foster parent support group and training opportunities.

Do children ever become available for adoption?

Yes. Sometimes, children are unable to return home and may become eligible for adoption. Foster families are always given adoption consideration when a child in their home needs a permanent family.

Who are the children?

Our foster children are ages birth to 20 years old and are in the custody of the MDCPS. Therapeutic foster children are identified as having either a severe emotional disturbance (SED) or a medically-fragile diagnosis. Typically, TFC children require placements lasting several months until reunification with their families of origin is ultimately achieved.

Foster families who can accommodate sibling groups or older children and teens are in high demand. All of the children we serve through TFC have suffered some form of trauma. We train and provide ongoing support to foster parents to help them address the needs of the child.