Southmountain Foster Community

Southmountain Estates: North Carolina's First and Only Foster Community

Southmountain Children and Family Services has become known as an innovator of quality programs and has led the way for new techniques in residential settings, collaborative efforts, and changes in service provision. One incredible result of these efforts has been the creation of North Carolina’s first and only “Foster Community.”

The Foster Community exists to improve the quality of life for children in care by providing the positive aspects of group care in a traditional family foster care setting. This hybrid approach allows our foster children to benefit from the positive aspects of both a traditional model and a group home model.

Why Did We Create a Foster Community?

In the early and mid-1990s, Southmountain constructed eight homes near Nebo, North Carolina. The homes were designed to look like typical single-family residences in a neighborhood setting that feature:

• Neighborhood gymnasium with exercise facilities, indoor basketball court and indoor swimming pool

• Ceramic and woodworking shops

• Outdoor recreation facilities including an alpine climbing tower, disc golf course and numerous walking trails

• Playground and picnic areas

• Outdoor spaces for families to enjoy time together

This new idea of neighborhood-style care retains many of the positive attributes of group care such as:

• Resources to keep siblings together

• Better acceptance of cultural and spiritual diversity

• Capability to care for “hard to manage” or “difficult to place” children and adolescents

• Remedial education programs

• Recreation and self-esteem-building programs

• Availability of doctors, dentists, clinicians and other necessary professionals willing to treat foster children

• Immediate support for the children and/or their caregivers in times of crisis

Why Is There A Need for the Foster Community?

Foster care (in any setting) is a demanding and expensive undertaking requiring dedication, love and self-sacrifice. Research shows that over 50% of foster families quit during their first year. National studies have identified a lack of support, scant resources, and the demanding nature of some children as the main reasons foster parents relinquish their role. The Office of the Inspector General's study was verified by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) who, based on this report, made significant recommendations to aid in the retention of foster parents. Many of these suggestions are accomplished through Southmountain's unique Foster Community.

The foster community provides all of the benefits of group care in a setting that feels and operates just as a typical foster family home. The Foster Community also creates a natural setting for families to support one another and for foster children to feel connected, with a unique sense of belonging.

What Are the Benefits of Community Care?

The greatest benefit of providing Community Foster Care is the support it provides. Many children placed into foster care have experienced trauma brought about by abuse and neglect. Often these children present extreme behavior after suffering adverse childhood experiences. During these times, foster parents need the support of professionals, neighbors, and friends who understand their circumstances and who are trained and willing to help.

The foster community provides support to both the children and adult caregivers (“professional parents”). Our “professional” parents love caring for children and have a positive attitude. They are the heartbeat of our program and are energetic and open to learning parenting techniques to meet the needs of the children in their care as well as a willingness to implement the CARE Model. We could not operate our foster community without the dedicated efforts of our “professional” parents.

“Professional” parents receive additional support in the form of our full-time recreation therapy staff who ensure children are supported and nurtured through recreational activities. Team building, personal growth, physical health and more are boosted through activity-based interventions and one-of-a-kind experiences provided by this talented team.

Our parents utilize this built-in support group much like the one recognized by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) as necessary for healthy foster parenting. Furthermore, supervisors, case managers, clinicians, and medical providers live within minutes of the community and are on-call 24/7.

In addition to their informal support, the professional parents also meet weekly for training and coaching. They receive extensive training in two programs developed by Cornell University:

• Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI) provides tools to de-escalate situations that might arise with traumatized children.

• Children and Residential Experiences (C.A.R.E.), an evidence-based model based on the premise that understanding children's pasts and building relationships with them is far more effective than trying to manage their behavior. Not only does the evidence support this theory but our own experiences with the C.A.R.E. models have proven that it works.

Are Professional Parents Employees or Foster Parents?

“Professional” parents are employees of Southmountain Children and Family Services. They live in the foster community 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year long just like typical family foster parents. By employing “professional” parents, they can focus solely on our children’s needs, treatment goals, and growth opportunities. For many traditional foster families, it is difficult to find the time and/or energy to meet the demands of caring for today’s foster children. The foster community model allows these dedicated, loving parents to be able to provide the care foster children need in a way that supports both them and the children.