SOUTH LOS ANGELES : Foster Parents Learn to Nurture

Patricia King always wanted to be a mother. Over the years, she has played aunt to neighborhood youngsters and the children of friends, and she is like a second mother to her nieces and nephews.

Two years ago, when King retired as an RTD bus driver because of an injury, she fulfilled a lifelong dream and became a foster mother.

“I feel I have a special talent to give love and nurturing to children,” said King, 36. “I like to make them smile when everything around them is going wrong.”

But being the temporary mother of children who often come from troubled homes is far from easy, King said. So each week, she and a group of other foster mothers take parenting classes at Los Angeles Southwest College.

In a class called “Building Self-Esteem in Teen-Agers,” the women learn the basics of nurturing foster children, from checking homework assignments to working through feelings surrounding child abuse.

“This class is a great asset,” King said. “I’ve learned a lot about self-esteem. It’s one of the most important things kids need in order to become successful and functional adults. With foster teens you really have to pay attention. They’ve been bounced around so much. They have a lot of scars.”

King’s class is one of 28 offered through Southwest College’s Foster Care Education program. The free day and evening classes, which started in 1989, run year-round and are supported by $100,000 in state and county funding annually, said Joni Collins, director of the program and instructor of the self-esteem class.

For Collins, the class and the program go beyond teaching the academic basics of better parenting.

“As a result of these classes, we find that people are staying foster parents a lot longer,” Collins said “This class is a place for them to come and rejuvenate, to have an outlet, to let them know they are not alone, that they’re not doing things wrong.”

She said that many of the Southwest foster parents exceed the 12 hours of classes annually required by Los Angeles County.

“The foster parents average about 25 hours a year,” Collins said. “They find the classes enjoyable and supportive. They like them so much that they keep going to all the classes.”

King, who cares for 2-year-old and 9-year-old girls, said that although she has begun to consider adoption, she wants to remain a foster parent.

“I feel like a good Samaritan,” King said. “I want to help as many children as possible and touch as many of their lives even if they are with me for only a short time. My role is to be that special friend that is going to protect them and care for them.”