'Owning' vs raising a child: What it means to foster in Quebec
CTV
Fostering, majority, tutorship and adoption: the jargon prospective families have to learn before embarking on a journey to welcome a child into their home can be overwhelming.
Fostering, majority, tutorship and adoption: the jargon prospective families have to learn before embarking on a journey to welcome a child into their home can be overwhelming.
In its most simple terms, it all starts with what kind of life a family wants to gain from the experience.
For parents who do not want to act as "regular" foster families -- where the children eventually return home -- there is the option of the "mixed bank" program.
Marie-Pierre Ulysse, a manager in charge of foster care with Batshaw Youth and Family Centres, explains this is when kids need long-term placement.
"There's a lot of need for children with a kind of foster care-type forever profile," she tells CTV News. "It's not necessarily that you're adopting the child. The child can be with you in long-term foster care."
When it comes to extended placements, there are several options, including having a child until the age of majority, tutorship and adoption.
"Do you want to have the pleasure of raising a child? Meaning, you don't necessarily have to 'own' the child, but you have the pleasure of raising the child," she explains. "You have a child that will be with you for a lifetime but will have contact with his parents."
