In May, Hale Kipa recognized National Foster Care Month with special efforts to educate and recruit foster families.

Hale Kipa Foster Home Developer Jessica Carter sat down with Dave Lawrence on Hawaii Public Radio’s “Helping Hand” segment, which aired May 10, to discuss the Transitional Family Homes Program for at-risk foster youth. 

Jessica was also interviewed on KHON2 Newson May 30 to discuss Hale Kipa’s foster services, as well as hosting an informational table at Orange Theory Fitness Center in Kapolei to help educate the public about fostering youth.  

Hale Kipa also participated in the annual Resource Family Appreciation Day on May 18 at the Kroc Center to thank our resource caregivers, adoptive parents and kinship families. The event was supported by Hawaii USA Federal Credit Union Foundation, GLUE and DHS. 

Hale Kipa is one of several agencies in Hawaii that handles therapeutic foster care on Oahu and the Island of Hawaii, in what we call our Transitional Family Homes Program.  We place 3- to 18-year-old youth referred from the Hawai‘i State Department of Health in short-term homes with foster parents (also known as resource caregivers). Currently, we have six homes on the Island of Hawaii and 15 homes on Oahu. We also place youth needing emergency shelter in homes on Oahu for periods ranging from one day to one month. 

The Transitional Family Homes Program involves youth who need additional support for various levels of trauma, abuse, violence and displacement, and includes the 24-hour support of Hale Kipa and regular visits by our foster staff and a therapist. Hale Kipa offers a support and learning system that seeks to keep children with additional needs in a healthy family unit until they can be reunited with their natural family, adopted, or learn to live independently. Youth in foster care need stability, consistency, safety and support from a foster family to learn how to live in a healthy, nurturing home.