The Iowa Citizen Foster Care Review Boards helps ensure the needs of foster children are met. The Boards meet monthly to review the status of children who have been removed from their parents. They work to ensure that Iowa children in foster care are safe and well cared for and that their cases move toward permanency in a timely and efficient way.
The FCRB serves as a less formal forum to hear about the progress or challenges being encountered, and to suggest solutions in the form of recommendations from trained and invested citizens with a variety of life experiences to draw from. The review process identifies systemic barriers to achieving timely permanency.
The FCRB provides an opportunity for ordinary Iowa citizens to use their collective talents to positively affect the lives of vulnerable children and families, and it provides system officials with a clear sense of how a concerned public views our government’s intervention into the lives of Iowa’s children and families. FCRB volunteers have an interest in child welfare in their communities. They come from all walks of life, representing various socioeconomic, racial and ethnic groups and occupations.
"Foster Care Review Board is a very rewarding experience. If what we do improves the life of a child who has been placed in foster care by trauma even a little bit, it is well worth the time we put in. A child's life depends on adults. A child can't be successful without nurturing and guidance. Just to know that we are covering all the bases to make sure a child is protected and cared for is very gratifying. We are also learning as well as serving the needs of others. We study various topics that help us do a better job continually."
— Barbara Lancaster, FCRB Volunteer
