Becoming a support family
The everyday life of a family with children is eventful and rewarding, but at times also demanding and trying for the parents. Many families receive support from their immediate circle when needed, but not all have a helping network nearby. A support family can help a family with children when support is needed and there are no relatives or friends around.
As a rule, children who visit a support family are between the ages of 3 and 12. The child usually visits the support family one weekend a month and, if needed, during holidays. The need for a support family may be caused by a child’s need of special care, a sudden crisis in the child’s family, or another kind of difficult situation in the family.
The child who receives support is involved in the ordinary everyday life of the support family and gets new stimuli and makes new friends and forms new relationships with adults to support their development. At the same time, the support family helps the child’s parents to cope by giving them the opportunity to take a breather.
Children in need of a support family are of different ages and have different needs, so different kinds of families are also needed as support families. A support family can be a person living alone or a couple, they can be childless, or they can have children of their own. Committing to becoming a support family is a joint decision made by all family members. Becoming a support family requires a stable life situation, a positive outlook on life, ability to cooperate and commitment to volunteer activities. This is because children often visit to support families for years.
Compensation is paid for being a support family.
Before becoming a support person or support family, support relationship training must be completed. The aim of the training is to provide basic information on support relationships, the development of a child or adolescent, and skills to support children and adolescents. The training is about three hours long and free of charge for the participants.
You can take part in training without committing to becoming a support person or a support family. Those starting as a support person or support family are interviewed and a home visit will also be made to the support families.
There is a great need for support families in the Wellbeing services county of Central Ostrobothnia. However, support families are not available for all children and adolescents who are in need of one. Therefore, through Soite, care for children and adolescents is also provided in support family homes.
There are several children in a support family home at the same time. Support family homes are used to shorten support relationship queues. The service is temporary and, in the future, the child may still get their own support family when one is found.
In addition to normal support family compensation, a family providing the support family home is paid a fixed fee for the care. The fixed fee for care requires the organisation of care for 3-4 children on three weekends per month. Support family days can also be organized on weekdays depending on the needs of the children and families.
Contact a social advisor if you want to discuss setting up a support family home.
How to apply to become a support family
A support family is applied for with an application. The application form can be found on the page for forms for social services. The application is submitted by post to a social advisor at Villa family centre.