A pilot foster care project will be undertaken over the next year as the Government moves to place more children under State care in stable family settings.

The pilot is part of a three-year programme between the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) and Family Life Ministries (FLM). This private-public partnership seeks to improve the delivery and operation of the foster care programme by increasing recruitment of foster families, as well as improving service delivery management and treatment programmes for children, parents and caregivers.

Under the initiative, dubbed ‘For the Child Foster Care Programme’, the FLM will identify, recruit, assess, engage and notify the CPFSA of prospective foster families for processing. CPFSA will approve families, match and place children, as well as monitor the families.

Both entities signed a Service Agreement to solidify the partnership during a ceremony at FLM’s Cecelio Avenue offices in St. Andrew on Tuesday (March 5).

For CEO of the CPFSA, Rosalee Gage-Grey, the agreement is historic, as it marks Jamaica’s first model public-private partnership in foster care.

This concept has been very effective in First-World countries such as Canada.

Find out more and view photos from event.