Teen in Wisconsin Foster Care Ready for Stability

Looking for a foster home with stability and acceptance

Eli is 13 years old and needs a Wisconsin foster home where things don’t change every few months. Years of instability have taught him to be careful with trust. He watches first, listens closely, and waits to see if adults are really going to stay.

Or if they, too, will abandon him.

Understanding anger in teens in foster care

Eli carries a lot of anger from the challenges he’s faced. When he’s overwhelmed or feels misunderstood, that anger can come out in unhealthy ways like yelling, shutting down, or testing limits.

The important thing to know? Eli can calm down. With time, space, and a calm adult who doesn’t escalate the moment, he can regulate and reconnect. He will do best with qualified foster parents who understand that anger is a stress response, not a character flaw.

A foster home that provides predictability

Big chaos, loud homes, or constant changes can overwhelm Eli. He doesn’t respond well to lectures or punishment; he needs patience, clear boundaries, and adults who stay steady even when he can’t. This is where previous foster homes have failed him.

He responds best to calm, predictable routines, including work and family schedules. After school predictability is essential. Additionally, safe outlets like building, drawing, or spending time with family pets can help him regulate his emotions.

When he feels heard and respected, he begins to trust that adults will really be there for him. If not, his emotions can escalate.

School can also be challenging. Eli has ADHD and significant trauma in his past, which makes focusing and staying organized difficult. He receives school support and benefits most from encouragement and consistency rather than pressure. He is below grade level in most areas, particularly reading.

He requires a foster family that will strongly advocate for his education. Spending time reading at home will be important.

Supporting Eli through therapy and reunification

Eli is actively working through big emotions in therapy and will need a foster family willing to support that work. He also has ongoing contact with his biological family, and reunification remains the goal. His foster family will play a key role in helping him feel safe and supported as he prepares for that transition.

What Eli Needs in a Foster Home

Eli would thrive in a home where:

Adults are calm, consistent, and trauma-informed
Anger is met with patience, not punishment
Adults are at home when he is not in school
Expectations are clear, fair, and predictable
Therapy and school supports are encouraged
There are no younger children in the home

Fostering a teen like Eli isn’t about fixing him. It’s about holding steady when things get hard, staying regulated when he can’t, and showing him that safe adults don’t disappear.

If you’re interested in learning more about fostering teens or becoming a foster parent with CCR, we’re here when you’re ready to take the first step.

All identifying information has been changed to protect the identity of children in care. This is not a child needing a home.

Wisconsin Foster Care Explained

There are important choices when considering becoming a foster parent in Wisconsin. Should you get a foster care license with a private agency or with your county foster agency? There are many differences to understand. Too many people choose "local," which is not always the best choice for everyone. Do your homework and choose an agency to support you and the foster children in your home 24/7.

Wisconsin foster parents have choices.

Wisconsin foster parents are NOT bound by county. No matter what Wisconsin county you reside in, you can choose to work with a private agency. CCR currently has foster homes in 35 counties, and each of our homes receives an abundance of support services rarely found with other agencies. Our priority is to help Wisconsin children from all counties heal from trauma, and we believe that can only be achieved through quality statewide support services.

Listen to Mary Simon explain how we do that:

Kids are in Wisconsin foster care for a variety of reasons.

Foster children come into care for hundreds of reasons and one type of agency cannot serve the needs of every child effectively and successfully. Community Care Resources serves children with higher emotional and behavioral needs due to childhood trauma. CCR receives approximately 40 referrals each month from counties across Wisconsin for reasons such as:

A child requires a foster home trained in trauma-informed care.
Keeping a sibling group of 2, 3, 4, or more together rather than separate.
Therapy and support services are required to begin healing effectively from past traumas.
Highly educated case managers are required to provide clinical services.
A foster home with an at-home parent to provide higher supervision.
An experienced parent to provide medical or emotional care.

10-year CCR veteran, Stephanie, describes what she has witnessed:

20% of kids in Wisconsin foster care are placed with private foster agencies.

Over 1,300 kids in Wisconsin are placed in a treatment-level foster home. A legitimate question might be: How many kids would benefit from a treatment home vs. a county home? How many additional foster kids could get the help they need to heal from past traumas or remain with their brothers and sisters? Unfortunately, there are no available statistics to answer these questions. However, it may be safe to assume that the number is significant.

Remember why kids often bounce from foster home to foster home. Foster parents are not fully supported, kids are not receiving necessary services to address their needs, proper trauma-informed care training is not required, all leaving foster parents overwhelmed and on a road to frustration and burnout.

Most Wisconsin county agencies do not have the resources to provide the necessary support to kids and foster parents. It takes a team of highly qualified professionals with time and resources. Although some larger counties do have children in very qualified treatment foster homes, the majority of counties do not offer this higher level of care. Unfortunately, many kids remain in a basic, level 2 county home where needs can go unmet. This is not the fault of foster parents, yet a lack of available support services can mean parents and children are often left to navigate on their own.

Support services enable foster parents to succeed.

Even the best foster parents cannot foster alone. A team approach is required. When a foster parent is neglected, feeling unsupported, or not respected, it is cause for concern. CCR receives calls every week from licensed foster parents from all over the state of Wisconsin interested in transferring agencies. The reason why is always the same. Lack of support!

Promises of support must be kept if a foster parent is to be successful. Working as a team and supporting each other is an agency strength at CCR.

10-year veteran Jamie explains how we do it.

An abundance of foster parent training means more successful outcomes.

CCR foster parents are required to complete 30 hours of classroom training prior to getting a foster license. The majority of this training is trauma-informed care focused and is taught by a team of experienced, long-time CCR staff. Training is designed to give foster parents the tools and skills to care for children with trauma histories.

CCR offers quarterly training sessions in numerous cities around the state of Wisconsin. Continuous training allows foster parents to learn from staff and each other on a variety of subjects related to fostering children with trauma and/or larger sibling groups. Learning from professionals, gaining access to new resources, and staying informed on new practices are important to teamwork and helping children heal.

Goals are set for every child in care in an effort to heal from past traumas.

Every child placed in a CCR foster home has an individualized treatment plan. The plan is designed to address a child's past traumas, current behaviors and emotions due to trauma, and set measurable, achievable goals towards healing. Working on the plan is a team effort. Foster parents, caseworkers, therapists, and county staff are all part of the healing process. When goals are attained, new goals are set to keep the trajectory of healing moving. Remember our goal is to help children heal so that they can succeed later in life.

We promise our foster parents many things here at CCR and we never make a promise we can't keep. The truth can be found in our foster parent retention numbers.

Of the families that leave CCR each year, LESS THAN 1% TRANSFER TO ANOTHER AGENCY!
The majority retire or have grown their family through adoption.
The average CCR foster family stays with us for 6.3 years.
The average length of current, active foster families, 9.1 years!

Please call us anytime 800-799-0450

We would be very happy to spend time speaking with you and helping you explore becoming a foster parent.