Foster mom Donna Green must be doing something right.

She’s Facebook friends with many of the kids who have been in her care, gets frequent phone calls from several who have grown up and gone on to college, and is still going strong in her third decade of foster parenting.

Green, 75, fosters kids through Massachusetts MENTOR, an intensive foster care program that works with children who have experienced trauma or neglect.

A mother of four, Green heard about the program through a neighbor and got the training to foster children at her own home.

“Most of the kids I’ve had I’ve kept for a long time,” said Green, who has kept some kids for five years before they were adopted or returned to their homes.

Through her schooling, Green holds an associate’s degree in clinical childcare, the foster mom learned not to get too attached to the kids who sojourned at her home.

Still, “the kids are always treated as part of the family,” said Green.

When her kids went to Six Flags, the foster kids came along. When there was a family project, the foster kids always participated.

Even as her children have grown up and left the nest, Green has continued to foster kids. After an accident that had her out of commission for a year and a half, Green said she was eager to welcome more kids into her home.

“I missed going to concerts in school and getting involved in their activities in school,” said Green.

Due to the nature of the situations kids have been removed from, MENTOR does not allow them to sleep over at a friend’s house (though they can have a friend over at their foster parent’s house.)

That doesn’t stop them from integrating into activities in town or through their schools.

Green’s foster kids have participated in school sports, been cheerleaders and gone to teen dances at the Knights of Columbus. A recent foster child’s activity of choice is skating, taught by Green’s own daughter.

And although Green says she doesn’t get too attached, she regularly keeps in touch with five of her former foster kids – four in college and one in the military.

For Mother’s Day, a foster daughter who is now in college in South Carolina called Green and said, “You taught me what it was to be a single parent and do it right. You’ve been my rock.”

“I cried,” said Green.

Green is the only MENTOR foster parent in Mattapoisett and Lynn Lanza, a recruiter with the company, said she wishes more would step up to help.

“The most difficult thing is everyday our phone rings with referrals of kids that are in emergencies,” she said.

Lanza admits that foster parenting is a challenge.

Once approved, they go through an intense and emotional training program to prepare them for the situations they may face with their foster children.

Foster families learn how to deal with everything from the hair of a child of mixed ethnicity to handling the displaced anger many kids feel after being removed from their homes.

Green, who helps with the trainings, said she has learned a lot in her three decades of fostering. One thing she hopes to impart to social workers and foster parents alike is that there are no immediate results.

“You’re not going to save the world, but if you can teach a child one thing, you’ve accomplished something,” Green said.

Learn more about Massachusetts MENTOR at www.ma-mentor.com.