ABSTRACT
The first chapter addresses complex issues related to the functioning of foster families, emphasising that the family that constantly and in various ways accompanies a person throughout the years of their human existence, teaching them to be open to the diversity and richness of the world of values, and triggers in them the desire for personal development – the attainment of the fullness of humanity. Unfortunately, everyday family life does not always create the necessary conditions for a person’s physical, social and spiritual existence and development. Thus, there is a constant increase in the number of one-parent families, in which children are most acutely affected by the breakdown of family unity and the loss of complex parental care and custody. As a result, parental rights may be terminated or limited and children may be placed away from their biological family, where they function as social orphans. One of the most effective ways to help a child without parental care who is experiencing a state of abandonment and loneliness is to place them in a foster family as soon as possible.
Therefore, in the first chapter it was emphasised that foster family, providing the ward with the right direction of upbringing in conditions of family warmth, restores the child’s hope for a better future, confidence in their strength and the ability to correctly self-assess their behaviour. This is why all the educational richness and diversity of relations and contacts in the foster family are so important, as it is them that the loving family bond is expressed through and at the same time based on. The position of a foster parent is thus built by their attitude of pedagogical optimism end responsibility for the children entrusted to their care and to whom they have the duty to show the right path of moral and social formation. Therefore, foster families should be willing to include in their educational activities the pluralism of their wards’ endeavours and aspirations which results from their cultural distinctness. The idea of foster parenting should not be pushed to the margins of social life but should constitute a significant point of reference in activities for the benefit of children who lost their natural family environment. The situation of foster families in a society that takes this direction of “family policy” is definitely favourable and has beneficial effects primarily for children themselves, but also for the whole society.
