Walden Family Services
Founded in 1976, Walden Family Services is a nationally-recognized foster care, adoption, and youth services agency that shares Henry David Thoreau’s vision for personal growth, our individual rights and responsibilities as members of a community, and a life that celebrates the richness of natural diversity.
Walden’s foster care and adoption program enables–infants and sibling groups, youth who identify as LGBTQ, and children with developmental disabilities, emotional and behavioral challenges, or special healthcare needs—to grow up knowing the love and sense of community that family life provides. There is a growing need for families to provide homes for sibling groups, older children, and teens.
Services and information
- Traditional Foster Care
- Emergency Foster Care
- Respite Foster Care
- Adoption
- Other
Requirements to become a foster parent
Many do not realize the need for new resource families in California. The number of foster kids outnumber the foster families who can provide short or long-term care. Foster advocates work hard to find places for these children, but it is not easy.
The latest 2021 report from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) report in California says there are:
- 47,871 kids in California's foster care system
- 22,892 who entered foster care
- 15,386 foster kids awaiting adoption
- California foster kids across all ages, with a median of 8 years
- 33% whose foster child case plans include adoption
A child's median time in the California foster care system is over a year at 16.8 months. 13% spend 3-4 years in foster care.
California needs foster parents to take in multiple children if they have the time and energy to care for them. Sibling groups often need care, and it is essential to support these family bonds. In California, it is challenging to find homes for teenagers, though they need stable environments and reliable adults to support them.
Ratings and Reviews
Average user rating
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Apr 09, 2022
I was evicted during the peak of the pandemic all the while eviction laws were in place which I was unaware of. I had to move out one month after recovering from Covid. It’s sad that programs like these are put in place to help, when ultimately I was subjected to a hard 6 months of living on the street bouncing from couch to couch, everyone expressed so much concern yet did nothing to prevent the unthinkable. I am not sharing this to take away from there intentions to do good, simply to spread awareness in hopes that no one else is put through this. Please do better next time. If I did not have the resources I did at the time, who knows where I would be today.
Jul 01, 2019
(Translated by Google) 1 st
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1st
Jan 16, 2019
You turned my sister down via text message. Do millenials run this place now also?