In a March 29 opinion article in Iowa's Press-Citizen newspaper, adoptive mother Marlene Jessop wrote about the great need for more foster parents:

Close your eyes and imagine for a moment that you are 7 years old. Everything you own is stuffed in a black garbage bag beside you. You sit in the backseat of a car as a social worker drives you to a different part of town to new home, and a new family, where you will be expected to learn new rules, attend a new school and make new friends.

If you are one of the nearly 6,000 children currently in foster care in Iowa or a resource family (commonly called foster families) who opened your heart to them, imagination is not necessary. ...

Nearly every community is suffering from a shortage of resource families. Children in foster care feel more secure and are likely to do better in school when they are able to stay in their own community.

The simple truth is that the larger the pool of qualified resource families, the easier it will be to ensure that children will not only achieve permanence in a timely manner but also that they can remain in their own neighborhoods and schools and stay together with their siblings more often.

Labels: foster care, foster_families, foster parents

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An effort is underway in West Virginia to form a statewide support and advocacy group for foster parents. Charleston Gazette staff writer Susan Williams described the effort in a Dec. 4 article:

Rachel Probst, support specialist for Mission West Virginia, said West Virginia has no active group that encompasses the entire state. & "First of all, we want to improve the quality of life for children in foster care. But foster parents and adoptive parents also need a collective voice." &

Although Probst works for Mission West Virginia, she said the new foster parent group will be independent of her organization.

"We want to be a central resource for parents," Probst said. "We want to educate people about the role of foster parents, and we want to be a support group for them and for adoptive parents.

For more information about the new group call 866-225-5698.

Labels: foster care, foster parents, awareness, support, west virginia

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