Foster care for underage mother with a child

Greetings, we are a foster family, and we are interested in information about the accommodation of an underage mother with a child. So far, we have always had children in the family, we have had one boy for four years, and we could accommodate both the mother and her child. Our house is big, and we have the conditions, the whole floor is free, and we would have a place to accommodate them. How to become a foster parent for a minor mother and child? Your booklet mentions such form of foster care, but we never got information about it. Whom should we contact, and does it go through you? Thank you very much.

We are glad that you are interested in extending your foster care permit for accommodating a mother and her child. What we hope is that in addition to the initial interest, you will persevere in realizing that desire. Namely, the situation is neither simple nor unambiguous. Our inquiry to the competent Ministry brought a very encouraging but rather vague answer: 

“Certainly, there is that possibility, instruct the interested lady to contact her local Social Welfare Centre or the foster care team that exists at the larger Centres.” We were not able to get an unambiguous answer about what the conditions are and what is needed to obtain a permit, but only an instruction that all this is assessed by the local Social Welfare Centre, which eventually issues the permit. If you are not satisfied with the actions or information obtained at the Centre, you can contact the Ministry of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy at https://mdomsp.gov.hr/. 

If you are not able to receive clear information even with the help of the competent Ministry, contact us and we will try again together. The most important thing is to stay persistent since this form of assistance to mothers is desperately needed, and at the same time, it is often quite unavailable.