What works in foster family recruitment? :Developing a successful recruitment campaign in foster care

Foster care provides children in situations of abuse and neglect with an opportunity to grow up in a family environment until the cause of separation from their families is resolved or they emancipate on reaching the age of majority. Finding families willing to look after those children is one of the most important challenges for care systems nowadays globally. Unfortunately family recruitment has been a rather neglected area for both the practice and the academic field, despite the fact that it is highly linked to success of foster care programs. This article reviews international evidence on recruiting foster families and proposes a model for designing a family recruitment strategy. This review indicates that the most successful recruitment strategies are those aimed at the general population, involving experienced foster parents, using all available resources, and sending objective messages about what this decision entails. Available literature also underlines the need for yearly recruitment plans, and the assessment of strategies used