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S.E.A.R.C.H. PROGRAM
So Every Available and Ready Child has a Home
Foster Care Services
Our S.E.A.R.C.H Department is a team of professionals exclusively committed to recruiting, preparing, and supporting permanent families for our boys and girls. As our department name suggests, every child deserves a home, and we are dedicated to finding one for each of them.
We provide assistance to families during the foster care placement process, including the following free services:
- Parent training
- Comprehensive support during foster care licensure or placement
- Ongoing and regular consultation, including 24/7 on-call support
- Clinical services
- Financial assistance information
We specialize in placing “special needs” children ages of 5 and up. A child who is experiencing some or all of the following circumstances is considered by the State of Florida to be a special needs child:
- Being part of a sibling group
- Belonging to a minority
- Older than 8 years of age
- Recovering from abuse, neglect and/or abandonment
- Unlikely to be reunited with his/her biological family
To provide these special children the attention they deserve, The Children’s Home has a particular interest in placing our children with licensed foster parents. For more information on becoming a foster parent, including monthly board rates, please contact S.E.A.R.C.H. Services at (813) 864-1459.
Download the Parenting Application
Note: For best results in using this form, please access the application through a separate browser (such as Internet Explorer) other than an e-mail-based platform.
FAMILY ORIENTATIONS
Find out about fostering a child by attending one of our free orientation sessions:
S.E.A.R.C.H. - Foster Parent Orientations
Check back for upcoming dates
HKI - Foster Parent Orientations
Check back for upcoming dates
In addition, we offer free weekly MAPP (Model Approaches to Partnerships in Parenting) training classes on Tuesdays from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., on the following dates:
Check back for updated dates & times.
The Heart Gallery Tampa Bay, a collaborative project of the Children's Board of Hillsborough County and Hillsborough Kids, Inc., was the first in the nation to feature both a sight and sound exhibit with audio messages from waiting children. The Heart Gallery is a unique photographic exhibit created to find forever families for children in foster care. The touring exhibit specifically recruits for those who have had parental rights terminated and are in jeopardy of aging out of the foster care system due to the lack of recruitment efforts within the overloaded foster care system. Those at higher-risk are particularly difficult to find permanent placements due to factors of race, age, sibling groups that desire to be adopted together, as well as special needs children who suffer from physical, emotional, or mental challenges. On average, slightly more than 100 children are featured annually.
The Progress Energy Heart Gallery of Pinellas & Pasco was launched in June of 2006. Modeled after many other successful Heart Galleries throughout the US, it includes portraits of local foster children available for adoption. Unlike many Heart Galleries that are part of a state child protection agency, the Heart Gallery of Pinellas & Pasco is an independent, charitable organization that began as a grass-roots, community initiative. Their partners include Eckerd Community Alternatives, Bay Area professional photographers, a host of committed volunteers, and big-hearted sponsors in the community.