MAPP Training – Kansas Specific

PS-MAPP stands for Partnering for Safety and Permanence – Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting Program.

Every potential foster or adoptive parent is required to complete PS-MAPP training before a child can be placed in their home. It is to prepare individuals and families to make an informed decision about becoming a foster or adoptive family. The decision is made with a child welfare sponsoring agency and is based on the capability and willingness to take on the “role” and develop the skills needed to foster or adopt. Foster and adoptive families who make good decisions and grow in their new roles work best with the agency, birth families and others. These partnerships help children and youth have stability and permanence within a family.

The program guides potential applicants through the complex issues they will face as foster or adoptive parents. Through carefully designed activities, parents see firsthand the challenges of fostering/adopting. Using both group and individual exercises, leaders help parents decide if their expectations and abilities match the realities of fostering/adopting. Mutual preparation and selection enable parents and sponsoring agencies to build the basis of teamwork toward permanency for children and their families.

Partnerships in parenting become partnerships for permanency. When foster/adoptive parents understand the needs of children and their families, it is more likely that permanency will be achieved.