About Pathways Family Services

Pathways Family Services provides professional support to highly skilled foster parents in the Edmonton area since the 1970’s. The Foster Care Program is under contract with and funded through the Government of Alberta to provide foster care to vulnerable Albertans ages 0-17.

Our Mission

As a foster care agency, we endeavour to provide each child placed in our care a sense of safety, stability, and family belonging.

Our Vision

We strive to foster within each child recognition as a valued member of society by providing stability, family based developmental opportunities, sustainable relationships, and connections to cultural and community resources that will build self-worth to last a lifetime.

Our Purpose

The Foster Care Program is a collaboration and partnership with Child and Family Service Authorities, partnering stakeholders, and linked community resources to promote the safety, protection, stability and well-being of children-in-care.

Our Objectives

  • In partnership with Children Services, provide a safe, stable and nurturing environment for children that cannot remain in their natural home.
  • To provide children the opportunity for growth, development, relationships, and a sense of family belonging.
  • To promote the child’s well-being, independence, beliefs, and cultural practices from a holistic lens.
  • To support and engage with the societal, spiritual, cultural and ethnic heritage of the child and the family of origin.
  • To work with case management and stakeholders to reunite the child with the natural family, or placement with a permanent family.

What We Do

The internationally accredited Foster Care Program is based on the belief that a family is the best environment for raising a child. A foster family is a temporary family for a child whose family or guardian is unwilling or unable to assume full responsibility for the child. The goal of foster care is to return the child to his or her own family as soon as possible.

In keeping with this goal, Pathways strives to recruit, train and provide support to foster parents who share our vision that children-in-care are nurtured by empathetic, responsive caregivers who accept them as they are and will respond in a developmentally appropriate manner with an appreciation of the impacts of trauma, loss, and grief in relation to their core story.

Our History

Pathways Family Services has a professional social work history dating back to the early 1970’s. Beginning with 8 families, Pathways offered 20 temporary emergency placement beds to children-in-need. By 1999, Pathways was awarded a contract to serve 210 children each day and remains one of the largest private support agencies in Edmonton. Throughout significant funding and system changes, Pathways Family Services remains committed to the values and integrity of the Foster Care Program by prioritizing caregiver support while keeping the child at the centre.

Ready to become a foster parent?

We would be happy to start the process any time!

ABOUT FOSTERING