MAY IS SET ASIDE to address a year-round need: foster care. It’s a need that’s growing. Lucas County Children Services is striving to meet that need.
“We want to acknowledge foster parents and all that they do for all the kids of Lucas County,” said Sherry Dunn, Children Services’ Foster Care and Adoption Recruitment Supervisor. “We want to raise the level of awareness that there is a need and want to recognize and congratulate the foster parents that we have. We appreciate them.”
The need is real. Dunn said a year ago, Children Services received a foster care and recruitment grant to bring up the numbers of potential foster homes. At that time, the agency had about 265 available homes. Now, that number is about 200.
She said the pandemic adversely affected Children Services. “People kind of forgot about us, and we were still getting kids coming in. We couldn’t do in-person pre-service training, so we did that online, but it took time to set that up.”
Also, many foster parents have retired, adopted and closed, or otherwise aged out. The need also is not just local. “The state is struggling,” Dunn said. “All counties are grappling to find foster homes. What I’ve never noticed before is that even private foster agencies are struggling to find homes, too.”
Dunn said there are two types of foster homes: treatment and family. Family foster homes are for children from newborns to age 17 with low to moderate behavior issues and who are not with their parents or caretakers due to abusive or neglectful situations that put them at risk. Treatment foster homes are for children who have come into care with moderate to severe behavior issues, or children who have special medical needs.
Lucas County Children Services always looks for relatives first before placing a child in foster care. “If a child in care can’t be reunified with their parents or a relative,” Dunn said, “our goal is adoption. Many of our foster parents do adopt, but some do not. Then children grow up in foster care.” The requirements to be a foster parent are straightforward. Dunn said, “You must be at least 18 years of age, demonstrate a source of income sufficient for yourself, demonstrate that you rent or own your home or apartment, and pass a background check. You can be married, single, or in a relationship, and can work outside the home. You will receive a monthly stipend to offset the costs of the child’s daily needs.”
New foster parents must complete 24 hours of training in person or online, spread over several days. She said LCCS’s next training session will be June 5, 6, and 7 at The Northwest Ohio Regional Training Center, 711 Adams St., Toledo.
To mark Foster Care Month locally, LCCS plans a movie night at the Maumee Indoor Theater on May 11, a Family Fun Day at Funigan’s in Sylvania on May 25, and a bowling get-together at a date to be determined at All Strikes Lanes in Toledo for LCCS’s foster families. For updates, visit LCCS’s website: https://www. co.lucas.oh.us/131/Lucas-County-Children- Services.
There’s one more activity Dunn plans for June 1, a faith-based celebration luncheon from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at The Northwest Ohio Regional Training Center. “The faith community has been instrumental over the years helping our families find foster homes,” she said. “Many years ago, we had a program called one church, one child. The concept was for each church to raise up one family to foster or adopt. I’d like to bring that back, or something similar. We have a lot of churches in Lucas County that may be willing to help us.”
Dunn recalls the saying, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Her take on that: “It takes a community to raise, protect, and educate a child.”
For more information about foster parenting, call LCCS’s hotline at 419213-3336, or Dunn at 419-213-3476, or visit LCCS’s website, https://www. co.lucas.oh.us/131/Lucas-County-Children- Services. ✲
