Everyone knows about adoption, but few people know what the process consists of. family care, A child protection measure targeting minors who cannot live with their parents. It involves the complete integration of the child into the family, which … This may be your extended family or the family of someone else who is committed to caring for and educating you as another family member. The reality is that there is a lack of welcoming families in a country where the system serves about 52,000 girls, boys and teenagers. Nearly half of them grow up in foster care and the other half in a residence.
In this context, the big challenge, as explained by Sandra Rodríguez Montero, coordinator and teacher of training courses on social inclusion and early childhood education at CEU FP Seville, “remains the lack of minors in the centers due to the lack of families available for certain files, which is why current policies insist on strengthening and expanding the scope of family care.” In his opinion, it is necessary to “continue to move forward with more support for families, more professional resources and awareness campaigns that attract families to the profiles that are most difficult to understand, which are usually teenagers and siblings.”
Why do children in foster care represent an “often unseen” reality? What do you think should be done to make it known?
Children in foster care are an invisible reality for several reasons. First, because the protection system operates, rightly, of necessary secrecy: there is no public exposure of minors or their families, so they rarely feature in social debate. Secondly, because adoption is more socially known, it is seen as a “closed story”, while foster care is a temporary and flexible measure, less present in society. Third, because we often associate protection with “centers” or professional intervention, it is difficult to imagine that the most restorative measure is the habit of growing up in the family.
To define it, it is necessary to normalize it and talk about it continuously: constant campaigns that go beyond specific dates, a presence in the media and educational spaces and real stories that explain what foster care is and what it contributes, always respecting the privacy of children. When society understands that foster care is a way to care for vulnerable children without replacing their history, foster care stops being an exotic thing and becomes a real possibility for more families.
Not everyone is good enough to be welcomed. What are the basic requirements in your opinion?
I would like to talk more than “ideal requirements”, about basic human and educational conditions. It is true that not everyone is ready to welcome, but not because they have to be “perfect”, but because welcoming requires a very specific outlook and availability. For me, the main thing is to have the ability to offer a safe and stable bond, to understand that the minor does not arrive “empty”, but rather arrives with a difficult history that cannot be judged or erased, and to do this we must be willing to accompany him patiently in his successes and setbacks. It is also essential to have stability in daily life, and I don’t mean having a perfect life, but a safe, predictable environment with routine. Likewise, have the educational flexibility to adapt to their emotional needs, and be open to working as a team with system professionals. It is not about “perfect families”, but about families that are available, caring, aware and supportive.
What are the main needs of minors entering the foster care program? How does alternative care contribute to repairing damaged relationships among minors?
Minors in care usually bring with them a previous experience of instability, neglect or disruption, so their main needs are not “material”, but emotional. They need to feel truly secure, knowing that there are adults who will not let them down, that the rules are clear and that affection does not depend on their good behavior. They also need time to adapt because sometimes they express their discomfort with difficult behavior or lack of confidence, and the important thing is for the adult to understand that this behavior is a way to protect themselves, not an attack.
Foster family care repairs damaged bonds because it offers a different relationship experience from the one they have known: daily coexistence with people who care without causing harm, who set limits without humiliation and who stay, even if there is a crisis. It is the daily repetition of good treatment that rebuilds trust. It’s not about big speeches, it’s about the minor who lives day by day, where there is a place where he can be calm, where he is looked at with respect and where his story is not a problem, but something to accompany him.
Foster families play a crucial role in the emotional reconstruction of minors. Is it possible to recover one hundred percent?
Talking about 100 percent recovery is complicated because there is no thermometer for emotional damage and every child brings a different story. What we know is that negative experiences leave their mark, but they do not determine the future. When a minor finds a stable, caring family, they can rebuild confidence, better regulate their emotions, and develop healthy self-esteem.
Reception does not erase what happened, but it can profoundly change the way one lives with that past. Sometimes there may be scars, as in any human process, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have a full life, with secure connections and their own projects. Instead of thinking about “curing everything,” I would say the goal is to fix enough that the child grows up feeling valuable, secure, and able to build healthy relationships.