Some chapters focus on her relationship with the birth parents as well. In each chapter, Janet shares the story of a child she cared for directly or through her work at The Children’s Ark. Molly Kretchmar-Hendricks in “Creating Compassionate Foster Care.” In the book, Janet shares firsthand experiences that she had with children she and her husband cared for, as well as efforts to work with birth parents to help them regain custody of their children. Those takeaways Janet now shares in conjunction with Dr. In the 16 years The Children’s Ark was in operation, Janet learned many lessons about working with children who entered the foster care system and their birth parents. We created The Children’s Ark hoping to keep children in foster care and their parents together.” Janet shares, “After fostering and transitioning to permanent homes 40-some infants and toddlers it became apparent to us that often the greatest hurdle of all to reunification was the separation from primary caregivers, and that perhaps the best way to help the child was to help the whole family. Children’s Ark was an intense, comprehensive, long-term program that served parents and children that provided both residential and outpatient services to help families reunify. Janet and Paul Mann had been foster parents for six years before co-founding The Children’s Ark in Spokane, Wash.

Fostering Hope by Mariah Kingsley