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Foster parents are desperately needed
“We desperately need more parents willing to take in foster children to meet even a small part of the demand for housing victims of today’s drug culture, abuse and neglect,” said Susie Hofstedt, family center director of Catholic Community Services’ Pierce County Family Center in Tacoma. She said she speaks for CCS throughout Western Washington when she talks about the problem. “We have foster care services here in Tacoma, but also at family centers in Vancouver, Seattle, Everett, Mount Vernon and Bellingham,” she said. “The need is everywhere.” There are approximately 18,000 foster children statewide. About 40 percent of those are in King County. The shortage of available foster parents and homes continues to be a major problem, partly because people don’t hear about the great need, said Jeanne Knox, the supervisor for foster home licensing and manager of the program for drug-affected infants at the Tahoma Family Center. “The incentive to become foster parents is to make a difference for kids in need,” Knox said. “Many people describe their dedication to the program as a calling. Children are very important to them, and they have a home environment that is very welcoming and inclusive. They have room in both their home and their hearts to take in strangers. Not everybody can do that.” Few headlines, however, tell the children’s stories of their trauma, bewilderment, and fears of being taken from their home, leaving their schools and friends, and placed in foster homes until their own home environment is stabilized – if that ever happens. Catholic Community Services of Western Washington is dedicated to helping those children have the best temporary homes and care possible during their trying times, both short and long term, Knox said. But CCS faces a continual challenge in finding people who want to reach out as foster parents, people willing to become the physical and emotional safety nets for these children in need. Today, CCS is working to address this critical situation. “We need foster parents to fill the gap in children’s lives,” Knox said. “Some parents are willing to take children of all ages, although they can choose which age group fits best with their family, which often depends on the ages of their own children.” She said the children in need of foster care range from newborn to age 18, some of them with special needs – such as babies born with a drug dependence and those with physical or emotional scars from abuse or neglect. Foster care is meant to be temporary, she said, until children can be returned to their homes – after parents have resolved their own emotional or drug-dependency problems – or to relatives. In some cases adoption is an alternative for the children. Some of them are eventually adopted by their foster parents. Becoming foster parents is a slow, measured, detailed process, Knox said, because each home must be a safe haven for the children who are sent there by CCS. She said the agency conducts thorough studies of potential foster homes and the living environment, and interviews friends and relatives of people who apply to become foster parents. There also are police background checks through the Washington State Patrol, including fingerprint checks, for past criminal records. That’s about a three-month process, she said. If those who apply are approved, there will be 30 hours of foster care training, including CPR and first-aid procedures. “We offer the training and other services at no cost,” Knox said. “Also, foster parents are reimbursed by the state Department of Social and Health Services for expenses for caring for foster children, but there’s no payment for these volunteer services. Nobody goes into foster care to make money. They go into it because they have a passion for helping children find love and stability in their lives.” In addition to the shortage of foster parents, there’s a turnover that makes the need for new people in the program even more critical, she said, noting that foster parents are volunteers who eventually retire, or simply get tired or have changes in their own family that make it difficult to continue providing foster care services. “There are a whole lot of kids in the foster care system these days, which simply means we need a whole lot more foster parents to care for them,” Knox said. For more information about the CCS foster parent program, call 800-372-3697 and ask the operator for the foster home licensing program. Information also is available at local CCS family centers in Vancouver, Seattle, Everett, Mount Vernon and Bellingham, and under Children’s Services. |
