Info and Resources

Knowles Centre's Treatment Foster Care program is committed to providing ongoing learning opportunities to all our foster families. Many of our more "experienced" foster parents have told us they wished they had the same parenting information when they were raising their biological children; and all our parents say that the knowledge they have gained makes a difference in the important work they do.

We hope you will find this information valuable, too.

Instant Family

Here's a movie our team loved. You can watch the preview here, and we encourage you to check it out through your favorite movie streaming provider.

The movie is inspired by a real family. We can't promise everyone will have the same experiences, but this covers many of the realities of fostering.

ReMoved
(Part 1 and 2)

Description from the filmmaker: "We made ReMoved with the desire that it would be used to serve in bringing awareness, encourage, and be useful in foster parent training, and raising up foster parents... ReMoved follows the emotional story through the eyes of a young girl taken from her home and placed into foster care...We were inspired to create this film while in foster parent training."

TED Talks Video: Every Kid Needs a Champion, by Dr. Rita Pierson

Rita Pierson, a teacher for 40 years, once heard a colleague say, "They don't pay me to like the kids." Her response: "Kids don't learn from people they don't like.'" A rousing call to educators to believe in their students and actually connect with them on a real, human, personal level.

TED Talks Video: The Power of Empathy, by Dr. Brené Brown

What is the best way to ease someone's pain and suffering? In this beautifully animated RSA Short, Dr Brené Brown reminds us that we can only create a genuine empathic connection if we are brave enough to really get in touch with our own fragilities.

The more healthy relationships a child has, the more likely he will be to recover from trauma and thrive. Relationships are the agents of change and the most powerful therapy is human love.
~ Bruce D. Perry

Introduction to Circle of Security^® Parenting Program™

At times all parents feel lost or without a clue about what our child might need from us. Imagine what it might feel like if you were able to make sense of what your child was really asking from you. The Circle of Security Parenting™ program is based on decades of research about how secure parent-child relationships can be supported and strengthened.

Knowles Centre's Treatment Foster Care Program utilizes the Circle of Security parenting program for all its foster homes.

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
~ Leo Buscaglia

The Starfish Story

As an old man walked the beach, he saw a boy picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. He asked the boy, "Why?" The boy answered the starfish would die if left stranded on the beach. Confused, the old man said: "But the beach goes on for miles and there are thousands of starfish; you can't make a difference." The boy looked at the starfish in his hand, tossed it in the ocean, and said: "Made a difference for that one."