No friends allowed.

[cmparent]

Suppose that you are a teen. You can't stay with your parents for one reason or another.

Some ministry or group finds a temporary foster home for you. Great!! You settle in. But you find out that you can't have any friends over, or even tell them your phone number.

Where do you end up spending your days and evenings, sometimes nights?

Likely you are on the streets, or in your friends' homes, until their parents get tired of feeding you, putting up with your problems, for free.

Come on, people, this one rule doesn't work, it puts kids back on the streets. It weakens an otherwise great program.

[rod_a]

This is a tough one, but I think protecting the foster family from further exposure to risk should be paramount.

Even though they are financially compensated, I'm sure those who run temporary foster homes have a tough enough time with one troubled youth. Letting 'friends' come visit could be much more difficult; inviting far more problems.

I do agree that providing a connection to the outside could be helpful.

Perhaps a funding of a semi-locked phone with its own number just for the youth would be good. Allow calls to and from 'approved' friends and family only. Hours could be limited too. Besides an outlet to the outside, it could be used for motivation by making it an earned privilege.

The hard part is deciding what makes for an 'approved' friend. There is liability and risk in providing the mechanism for outside contact, which makes me believe the Ministry would never chance it. Benefits be damned.