Reading and resources

We’ve compiled a list of books and other foster care resources to help you dig deeper into various aspects of Out-of-Home Care. Click on the links below to navigate the types of resources.

Books

Please be aware that several of these books contain very strong themes and content that may be disturbing or triggering. We encourage you to read a synopsis of each book before deciding if it is appropriate for yourself or to recommend to others.

Foster Care

  • Home for Good: Making a difference for vulnerable children, Krish Kandiah
  • Foster the Family: Encouragement, hope, and practical help for the Christian foster parent, Jamie Finn
  • Ready or Not: 30 days of discovery for foster & adoptive parents, Pam Parish
  • Reframing Foster Care: Filtering your foster parenting journey through the lens of the gospel, Jason Johnson
  • A Child’s Journey Through Placement, Vera Fahlberg, M.D

Trauma, Attachment & Parenting

  • The Connected Child: Hope and healing for your adoptive child, Karyn Purvis
  • The Connected Parent: Real-life strategies for building trust and attachment, Lisa Qualls & Dr Karyn Purvis
  • The Whole Brain Child: 12 revolutionary strategies to nurture your child’s developing mind, Daniel J. Siegel & Tina Payne Bryson
  • No Drama Discipline: The whole-brain way to calm the chaos and nurture your child’s developing mind, Daniel J. Siegel, Tina Payne Bryson
  • Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors: Brain-Body-Sensory Strategies That Really Work, Robyn Gobble
  • Parenting from the Inside Out: How a deeper self-understanding can help you raise children who thrive, Dan Siegel & Mary Hartzell
  • How We Love Our Kids: The 5 love styles of parenting, Milan & Kay Yerkovich
  • Securely Attached: How understanding childhood trauma will transform your parenting, Mike & Kristin Berry
  • The Deepest Well: Healing the long-term effects of childhood adversity, Nadine Burke Harris
  • The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog and Other Stories: what traumatized children can teach us about loss, love and healing, Bruce D. Perry
  • The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, mind and body in the healing of trauma, Bessel van der Kolk
  • What Happened to you?: Conversations on trauma, resilience and healing, Bruce Perry & Oprah Winfrey

Biographical

  • Fostered: One woman’s powerful story of finding faith and family through foster care, Tori Hope Petersen
  • Looked After: A childhood in care, Ashley John-Baptiste
  • The Anti-cool Girl, Rosie Waterland
  • The Prettiest Horse in the Glue Factory, Corey White
  • A Piece of Cake, Cupcake Brown

For Children

  • One of a Kind, Linda Espie
  • Jeremy’s Changing Family, Simone Collier
  • We are a Foster Family: How Two Young Boys Became Foster Brothers, Ashlee Carroll
  • Who Loves Baby?, Who Loves Me? and I Am Loved, The Forgotten Initiative
  • Maybe Days: A Book for Children in Foster Care, Jennifer Wilgocki
  • A Mother for Choco, Keiko Kasza
  • On the Far Side of Poplar Pond, Anjanette Walchshauser

Other

  • Too Small to Ignore: Why the Least of These Matters Most, Wess Stafford
  • The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World, Rosaria Butterfield
  • Devotional Journal from ARK Australia: A journal for carers with scriptural insights and space for prayer, contributed by carers, to encourage carers of kids from tough places in their faith. Available via the ARK website.

Guides and courses

Online resources

State and Territory Foster and Kinship Care Associations have a range of resources available.

Podcasts

  • Faith and Fostering, Ark Australia -Where people of faith chat about Foster care in the Australian context, to encourage, edify and educate others on the journey.
  • A Home and Healing for Every Child, Adopt Change – Conversations with global thought leaders, experts and individuals with lived experience on topics including foster and kinship care, adoption, child welfare, trauma and healing.
  • The TBRI Podcast, The Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development (USA) – Conversations about Trust-Based Relational Intervention®, an attachment-based, trauma-informed intervention designed to meet the complex needs of vulnerable children.
  • Real Mom Podcast, Foster the Family (USA) – A podcast for biological, foster, & adoptive mums.
  • Who Cares?, Carer Kafe (Victoria) – Specifically designed for new foster carers, this podcast series provides guidance and tips straight from other carers and staff who work in out-of-home care in Victoria.
  • Care to Share?, Carer Kafe (Victoria) – This series provides additional tools to assist carers throughout their fostering or kinship journeys.  They will help carers gain insight on a range of topics so they have a better understanding of the home based care system and child protection system.
  • Helping Carers Helping Kids, Department of Families, Fairness & Housing (Victoria) – A podcast series that provides additional information and insights on a range of topics to help foster and kinship carers in their important role.
  • Foster Movement Podcast, More Than Enough, CAFO (USA) – Interviews with former foster youth and foster care leaders and advocates.
  • The Forgotten Podcast, The Forgotten Initiative (USA) – Sharing stories from the foster care community.
  • The Fostering Church Podcast, A More Than Enough production, CAFO (USA) – A limited series designed to help you grow your church’s foster care ministry – no matter where you are on the journey.

Other Resources

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  • For us, this is a ministry. Hayley’ Story

  • We are all God’s family: Children’s ministry lesson

  • Celebrating Foster Care Week

  • Waking the sleeping giant.

  • It takes all of us. Ali & Noddy’s story

  • Caring for carers: Wrap-around support

Your Church and the Homeward Project

Help transform Out-of-home Care in your community.

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