Welcome to Georgia DFCS' Partnership Parenting

Traditionally called foster parenting, Partnership Parenting is part of  an agency wide shift to a Family Centered approach to serving children and families.  Partnership Parents will continue to provide care for children who have been temporarily placed in foster care. 

The Family Centered Practice Model is not a program. It is a philosophy and values that directs how we work with families. It builds on family strengths rather than exploiting family weaknesses. It recognizes the connectedness of child, community and family in achieving child welfare objectives.

The goal of Family Centered Practice is to strengthen the parent's potential for being responsible for their children. Sometimes this may mean that the child and their parent must be separated. When this happens, the "placement parents" must support the child's continuing relationships with parents, siblings and capable relatives.

Three keys of DFCS' Family Centered Practice are - 

1. The family unit is the focus of attention. The well-being of the child is linked to the well-being of the family.

2. Foster care is temporary. The goal is to achieve permanency or lifetime connections for a child as soon as possible.

3. Families can change. The need for foster care intervention today, does not mean that intervention will be needed tomorrow. 

Good for the Community.  Better for Families. Best for Children.