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Me and My Foster Family (MOMP)

Improving the Lives of Foster Children

Contact Me and My Foster Family

Associate Professor
Copenhagen University College, KP
Institute for Social Work

26 36 66 37
afre@kp.dk

Associate Professor, ph.d.
Copenhagen University College, KP
Institute for Social Work

+45 24 29 64 88
soda@kp.dk

Eight Danish municipalities and NUBU shed light on foster children’s well-being and learning.

Me and my foster family: Improving the Lives of Foster Children (MOMP) is the name of an ambitious project aimed at strengthening the well-being and learning of children and adolescents placed in foster families. The project is carried out by researchers at NUBU. It is initiated by the Tryg Foundation that funds the project with 17 million DKK. Furthermore, Den A. P. Møllerske Støttefond has granted 6,4 million DKK.

Systematic measurements of foster children’s well-being and learning progress

Foster children and adolescents’ well-being have the potential to improve substantially if the main caregivers around them systematically follow the children’s development and intervene with relevant and effective efforts. That is the primary hypothesis of this project.

Hence, in this project municipalities, foster families and researchers work together to choose and adjust measurement tools that can help foster families improve the well-being and learning of their foster children in everyday life. Today the well-being of these children is followed by the social workers and family care consultants. In this project, however, also the foster parents, the primary teacher or kindergarten teacher are asked to take part in the assessments of the foster child’s well-being and learning progress – and even the child itself if old enough.

The measurement tools provide an opportunity to compare the child’s development and well-being with that of other children the same age. The municipality can then offer the children and their families more directed interventions, e.g. a learning intervention that MOMP has tested. Here the foster parents use specially designed learning games at home with their foster child for 16 weeks to improve the children’s academic and social abilities.

The childrens' perspective

Me and My Foster Family value the perspective of the child. Three panels of children have been a part of the project. The children are all placed in foster care. As part of their placement, they must have a meeting with their social worker at least once every six months. The children in the panels made two stop motion films – one that shows how they wish to have meetings with their social worker and one that show how they do not want the meetings to be.

The films about meetings between a child placed in foster care and a social worker can be found here:

Increased well-being – better lives

The project’s short-term goal is to improve the well-being and learning of the foster children and adolescents. In the long-term, it will improve the children’s opportunities for mastering their own lives and lead to a smoother path towards an education, work, good health and the avoidance of social problems.

Me and my foster family: Improving the Lives of Foster Children started in 2017 and has been tested in eight Danish municipalities.