It's summertime, and that means vacations and camps for some families. But for kids with no where to go, summer makes it even more difficult to find them a home.?
In Scott County there are about 85 foster homes right now, but Iowa KidsNet gets about 5 to 10 kids a day that need to be placed in a home. Over in Rock Island County, there's 74 kids in foster care right now so resources are always short.??
"We are always in need of foster homes, it's never going to stop, it's constant," Alice Tirrell, Iowa KidsNet service area leader for eastern Iowa, says.?
For Tirrell's staff, recruiting foster homes is a concern 24/7.??
"Many of our foster homes end up adopting so then it's great they're finding a forever home for their children, but then we lose a foster family so it's a constant need," Tirrell says.
Staff say about 2-5 kids get adopted by their foster families each month. In the summer, it gets even tougher with not only fewer homes to place kids, but more kids getting taken away from their homes.?
"People are on vacation, people are gone," Tirrell says, "They may leave the foster children here if they're going out of state, but the children have to go to another foster home, they can't just go anywhere."?
"The kids are home all day and that wears on people's nerves and behaviors," Tirrell says, "They may do things they hadn't thought about doing, like striking a kid."?
Each foster home must be licensed through the Department of Human Services, which usually takes about six months and requires families to go through an initial orientation, classes and interviews, a process not everyone is willing to go through.??
"We have a lot of people that come to the orientation, but maybe only half are licensed," Tirrell says.?
Counselors say the ones that do have a special quality.??
"Our foster parents, I'm amazed at them on a daily basis," Tirrell says, "It takes a lot of patience, they need to take on rejection and be OK with it because you're not mom and dad so a lot of their frustration gets poured out on you."?
If you would like to?find out more about becoming a foster parent and live in Iowa, contact Alice Tirrell at (563) 468-2372, or visit: http://www.iakids.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.theprocess.?
If you live in Illinois, visit: http://www.state.il.us/dcfs/foster/index.shtml
Source: http://www.kwqc.com/story/19003885/foster-kids-in-need-especially-in-summer
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