FAQ

PRIDE is managed and facilitated by MCFD. To register for PRIDE In-Service, contact your resource social worker — they’ll get you set up and will track your progress as part of your caregiver learning plan. PRIDE Pre-Service is completed as part of the application process, before you’re approved.

Both parts are delivered online, with a group of specialised virtual facilitators supporting you along the way.

Sources: Foster Family Handbook; Foster Caregiver Orientation Guide

Fostering is a team activity, and several organisations make up the team around a child in care on Vancouver Island. MCFD employs the social workers closest to you and the child — child protection, guardianship, resource, adoption, and specialist workers. For an Indigenous child, an Indigenous Child and Family Service Agency (ICFSA) social worker is part of the team, and the child’s Nation or community takes part in decisions. The BC Foster Parents Association (BCFPA) handles insurance and advocacy province-wide.

Closer to home, Caring Families Society (CFS) provides your local Area Coordinator, peer support, mentoring, training, and investigation support across the Island, and your local foster caregiver association runs peer events and community building. If you’re ever unsure who to approach, your CFS Area Coordinator can point you to the right person.

Sources: Foster Family Handbook; Foster Caregiver Orientation Guide

The CFCSA is the Child, Family and Community Service Act — the provincial law that governs child protection and the care of children and youth in the custody or guardianship of a director. It became law on 29 January 1996. Everything in the Family Care Home programme — placements, Plans of Care, the rights of children in care, and guardianship decisions — is authorised by and must be consistent with it.

You can read the full text for free at www.bclaws.ca. If a decision or rule affecting a child in your care traces back to the CFCSA, your resource social worker or CFS Area Coordinator can help you understand how it applies.

Sources: Foster Family Handbook; Foster Caregiver Orientation Guide

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a brain-based disability caused by prenatal alcohol exposure. It affects how a child’s brain develops and how it handles information, stress, memory, and the ordinary expectations of daily life. Most challenges you see are not about motivation or defiance — they are about how the brain is working. Children with FASD usually want to do well; their brains just have a harder time connecting past experiences to current behaviour.

A helpful shift in daily caregiving is moving from “Why won’t they?” to “What support does their brain need right now?” When routines are predictable, instructions are clear and simple, sensory load is reduced, and adults stay calm and consistent, children with FASD are far more able to learn, regulate, and connect.

Source: CFS FASD Practice Notes

Trauma-informed care is an approach, not a technique. It is a way of seeing children and responding to them that takes into account what they may have lived through and how it affects them now. The core shift is from asking “What is wrong with this child?” to asking “What happened, and what does this child need right now?” That single shift changes how you read behaviour, what you prioritise, and what you do in difficult moments. It means seeing behaviour as communication and responding with understanding rather than punishment.

In practice, the order of things changes. Before any correction, the child’s safety and regulation come first. Before any consequence, the relationship comes first. None of this means ignoring behaviour. It means meeting it differently, with the understanding that punishment delivered to a dysregulated child does not teach the lesson the adult intended. Trauma-informed care rests on several guiding principles that work together, including safety, trust and consistency, connection before correction, choice and empowerment, and cultural safety.

Source: CFS Trauma-Informed Practice Notes

The mandatory training is PRIDE (Parenting Resources for Information, Development, and Education). Every caregiver who signs a Family Care Home Agreement with MCFD must complete it within the required timeframe — it’s a core expectation of the role, not an optional add-on. PRIDE comes in two parts: Pre-Service, done during your application before approval, and In-Service, done after approval.

PRIDE is the foundation, not the finish line. Afterward, your caregiver learning plan (developed with your resource social worker) maps out ongoing learning, and CFS offers workshops throughout the year on trauma-informed care, attachment, FASD, self-care, and more. Keep your certificates of completion — your resource worker tracks them at your annual review.

Sources: Foster Family Handbook; Foster Caregiver Orientation Guide

Alongside your own required household insurance, the BC Foster Parents Association (BCFFPA) administers two coverages for foster families at no cost to you. The first is automatic third-party liability coverage — every approved foster parent in the province is covered if someone claims against you for unintentional bodily injury or property damage arising from your caregiving, with no need to apply or pay.

The second is the Rider Insurance Programme, part of the Master Insurance Program. It supplements your own homeowner or tenant policy by mirroring its limits and covering damage and theft caused by a child or youth in care — losses a standard policy would usually exclude. Because it extends your existing policy rather than replacing it, you must keep your own household insurance in place for the Rider to work.

Sources: Foster Family Handbook; Foster Caregiver Orientation Guide

The BC Foster Parents Association — also known as the BC Federation of Foster Parent Associations (BCFFPA) — is the provincial association run by and for foster caregivers across British Columbia. The two names refer to the same organisation; both appear in ministry publications. It works closely with MCFD to build stronger partnerships between foster families and ministry staff.

BCFPA administers the Foster Parent Insurance Program for all approved caregivers, helps develop mandatory and pre-service training, publishes the FosterlineBC newsletter three times a year, advocates for caregivers provincially, and runs the Fosterline support line. Members and their families can also access comprehensive dental and extended health plans. You can learn more at bcfosterparents.ca.

Sources: Foster Family Handbook; Foster Caregiver Orientation Guide

Keep these provincial numbers where you can find them fast. For any life-threatening situation, call 911. For a child in care emergency outside office hours (normally 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday to Friday), call the MCFD After Hours Line at 1-800-663-9122 — in the Lower Mainland, 604-660-8180. To report suspected child abuse or neglect, call the Ministry Helpline for Children at 310-1234, staffed 24/7, no area code needed. For poisoning or exposure to a harmful substance, call the Poison Control Centre at 1-800-567-8911, available across BC, 24 hours a day.

Alongside these, keep your own local numbers on the fridge or in your phone: local police and fire non-emergency lines, your nearest hospital emergency room, a local crisis or distress line, and the names and numbers for your child’s social worker, your resource social worker, and your child’s doctor and dentist.

Sources: Foster Family Handbook; Foster Caregiver Orientation Guide

It depends on what the question is about. As a quick guide:

• A decision about a specific child (school, medical, visits, day-to-day care) — the child’s social worker.
• Your home, your contract, approvals, or payments — your resource social worker.
• Peer support, mentoring, training, or help through an investigation — your CFS Area Coordinator.
• Foster caregiver insurance — the BC Foster Parents Association (BCFPA).
• Local peer events and community — your local foster parent association.

If you’re not sure where to start, your CFS Area Coordinator can help you find the right person.

Sources: Foster Family Handbook; Foster Caregiver Orientation Guide