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About Us

Mission Statement

To improve the lives of children and youth in care by providing research-based, online training to their caregivers and families.

FosterParentCollege.com® (FPC) provides innovative, interactive online courses for foster, adoptive, and kinship parents. Our self-paced training is accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. FPC training is recognized by the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare, based on studies of FPC courses that have been published in peer-reviewed journals.

1,428,506Courses Taken
341,199Member Accounts

Who We Are

FPC is operated by Northwest Media, Inc., a privately held "Purpose Over Profit" company that is dedicated to FPC's mission. Our small team includes writers, video producers, video editors, software engineers, and customer service and business support people. Our goal is to provide and maintain the highest quality training, guided by evidence from research studies of both the content and delivery of FPC courses.

Explore Our History

1985

Northwest Media Inc. Founded

Northwest Media logoIn the mid-1980s and during a recession, three people—a research child psychologist, a videographer, and a business developer—brought their talents together and founded Northwest Media, Inc. (NWM). The vision was to create a socially focused media company.

2001

N I C H D Funds Development and Study of FPC Website Prototype

Logo for National Institute of Child Health and Human DevelopmentNational Institutes of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (N I C H D ) funds the first Small Business Innovation Research (S B I R ) grant to NWM for building a prototype of FPC web-based courses. In a study, a sample of foster parents who took this first course (on children's serious anger problems) showed significantly greater improvements in knowledge about children's anger and in perceptions about their own parenting, compared to a control group who did not view the course.

2002

N I C H D Funds Phase II of FPC Website Development

N I C H D funds a 3-year S B I R grant to further develop the FPC project, producing a series of interactive, multimedia courses for foster and adoptive parents on children's serious behavior problems. Two of the courses (on lying and sexualized behavior) were evaluated and found to significantly improve parents' knowledge of both behavior problems, as well as parents' self-perceived confidence, comfort, and objectivity in handling their children's lying and sexualized behavior. Parent satisfaction with both courses was very high.

2005

FPC Website Goes Live

Foster Parent College's original logoFPC's online foster parent training is launched nationwide, as well as in various countries throughout the world, including Canada, the UK, and Australia.

2007

N I C H D Funds Development of Pre-Service Training Courses

N I C H D funds an additional S B I R grant to develop and evaluate a series of pre-service online courses for resource parents. During the grant period, the concept of blended training evolved, and the N I C H D administrator approved our request to study the entire blended curriculum rather than each of the individual courses as originally planned. In a well-designed study, the blended training approach was proven effective at improving parents' knowledge and training completion rate, and parent satisfaction with the approach was very high.

2009

FPC Is Recognized by CA Evidence-Based Clearinghouse

Logo for California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child WelfareFPC in-service parent training is recognized and rated by the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare (C E B C ) as supported by promising research evidence and as having high child welfare relevance.

2014

FPC Pre-Service Blended Parent Training Is Recognized by CA Evidence-Based Clearinghouse

FPC's pre-service parent training is recognized and rated by the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare (C E B C ) as supported by promising research evidence and as having high child welfare relevance. See FPC's Research & Evidence-Based Ratings page.

New Generation PRIDE Blended Training Is launched

Logo for Child Welfare League of AmericaFPC partners with the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) and co-develops New Generation PRIDE using the FPC blended approach of online training and CWLA's PRIDE Model of Practice.

FPC Is Recognized by Several National Associations

Logo for Canadian Foster Family AssociationFPC is endorsed by several national associations in the United States, along with the Canadian Foster Family Association.

2015

Grant Era Ends and FPC Is Self-Funding

S B I R grant funding ends, and all final reports are submitted to N I C H D . FPC moves to become self-funded through state and agency contracts. FPC now self-funds the building of new courses and updating of older courses on our website. See a list of FPC's most recent courses here.

FPC Begins Operating as a Purpose Over Profit Organization

The leadership team operates Northwest Media, Inc., the parent company of FPC, as a "purpose" over "profit" corporation, with our mission being to improve the lives of children and youth in care by providing research-based, online training to their caregivers and families. Now self-funded, FPC continues to do research and development with the same high standards used during the federal grant period. See FPC's logic model.

2016

Pre-Service Courses Are Translated Into Spanish

FPC launches the first of many courses dubbed in Spanish, beginning with the pre-service courses. (Translated courses have the same functionality as their English counterparts.)

FPC Launches a Spanish-Language Glossary for Social Work

FPC recognizes a lack of consistency in English-to-Spanish terms. The Spanish translation team works together to build a glossary of Spanish words and terms that is provided free to the child welfare industry.

2018

FPC implements Strength-Based Language

FPC joins with CWLA and NFPA to provide and integrate Strength-Based Child Welfare Words and Expressions in the FPC training.

Logo for National Foster Parent AssociationLogo for Child Welfare League of America

2019

FPC Begins Implementing A D A Standards

FPC moves towards A D A accessibility standards, starting with the addition of closed captioning to FPC online pre-service courses for the hearing impaired, followed by navigation aids for the visually impaired.

2024

FPC Website Update and Redesign Launches

New Foster Parent College logoAn internal team of web designers, programmers, and reviewers updates and redesigns the FPC website, including mobile and handheld device compatibility.