Skookum Kids

Skookum Parents - Skookum Parents is a reunification-focused foster care licensing and placement agency. We recruit, train, and license families to do the important and difficult job of foster care. Our goal is to cultivate a network of natural support around a child and their family improving the likelihood that they will successfully reunify and that recidivism will be unthinkable. Skookum Parents supported a team of more than 60 licensed foster families in 2024 who cared for more than 100 children. We are proud that the rate of reunification for children placed in our homes exceeds 80%, more than 15 points better than the statewide average.

Family Time - More than 80% of children in foster care have court-ordered, supervised visitation with their family of origin. These visits are delicate, emotionally heightened experiences for everyone involved. We ensure that these visits happen in a timely manner in a way that is safe and productive for everyone involved. With more than 4,100 hours of "family time" visitation hours in the last year, Skookum built such a reputation for excellence that we secured a specialized contract to conduct all of the initial visits, often the hardest, in our catchment area.

Foster Supports - In addition to training and licensing families to provide foster care, we also support and encourage them throughout their foster parenting career with things like Family Night Out, bi-monthly support group, and Skookum Mentors, a program in which we pair adult volunteers with children in foster care. One of the strongest predictors of successful social and educational outcomes for children is the presence of a third safe/healthy adult, in addition to their parents, playing a predictable role in a child's life. This kind of influence is rare for children in foster care who are often separated not just from their family of origin but also from their extended family and other social supports. In an effort to restore this important influence in a child's life, we pair volunteers who have been vetted and trained with children placed in foster care to provide educational, recreational, and prosocial support. More than 50 children were paired with a Skookum Mentor this year, most of them benefiting from weekly one-on-one attention that supports their success in both school and life.Camp Skookum As part of Skookum's commitment to reunification, we host an annual three-day-long camp experience for reunified parents & children to celebrate the monumental accomplishment of putting their family back together. Camp is a place to make friends and build community around a shared experience with foster care. There is a combination of skill-building opportunities, group therapeutic experiences, and most importantly, tons of fun! Fourteen families participated in 2024, 6 returning for a second time. One family shared that Camp Skookum was the first time they had returned to the same place two years in a row. Camp had become their very first family tradition.