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Parish needs more foster parents
Published Saturday, August 30, 2008
FERRIDAY — The Louisiana Department of Social Services is looking for a few good men — or women — to open up their homes for local children who have been temporarily removed from their home.
The Concordia Parish Office of Community Services will have an orientation class at 6 p.m. Thursday for those who want to be considered for foster or adoptive parenting.
There are currently 651 children in foster care for the Alexandria region, which includes, Concordia, Catahoula, LaSalle, Winn, Grant, Avoyelles, Rapides and Grant Parishes. In that same region, there are approximately 200 foster parents.
In Concordia Parish, there are only 10 foster parents, but there are 30 foster children in the system.
“We are lacking foster parents in that area,” Regional Foster and Adoptive Home Recruiter Mary Jane Barrett said. “It is one of those areas where every time somebody goes back home we fill up that space again. We don’t have enough foster parents for the children in our care so the children get placed out of parish.”
Placing children out of parish can hinder the goal of the foster parenting program, which is eventual reunification of the child with their family.
“If the child is placed out of parish, it is difficult to do reunification because it is hard to do (family) visits if the child is in one parish and the parents are in another,” Barrett said. “We like to keep them closer to family and friends, and to keep them at their same schools.”
The number of children in the foster system has grown in recent years, but the number of foster parents has not been increasing at the same time.
To be certified as a foster parent, those who participate have to attend seven classes and then the department of social services does a home study to ensure they have a safe and stable home environment.
They also have to be financially stable, in good physical, emotional and mental health and pass a criminal background check.
Those who adopt through the state also have to complete the certification.
The Office of Community Services is located at 100 Serio Blvd., in Ferriday.
Comments
Posted by kpage (anonymous) on August 30, 2008 at 6:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
We need more love, people. I've always said I'd take care of those less fortunate than me if I am blessed with money. It's a shame the state doesn't feel the same.
Posted by beanie (anonymous) on August 30, 2008 at 7:17 a.m. (Suggest removal)
There is a very important fact buried in this story…
“The number of children in the foster system has grown in recent years,.”
You see, Child Protective Services (Social Services) gets money from the federal government for taking kids from families and adopting them out. If they increase the number of kids they place in foster care and adopt out, they even get bonuses. Last year Virginia received over $1.5 billion (yes BILLION) from the federal government for taking kids and almost nothing for maintaining families. But, there is a time limit. If they pass that limit, they loose funding. Often they don’t even care about the welfare of the children, they just want to push the case through the system as quickly as possible. That is why you hear stories of children dying when CPS stood by doing nothing - it cost them too much or would be difficult to get through the courts in time.
Ever since the debacle in Texas with the FLDS, news is everywhere about CPS corruption. That sleepy little Texas town could have netted over $3,000,000 in bonuses for this one attack – that’s all they were looking at and why, even though they claimed polygamy, no one was arrested for this, only the kids were taken (to sell on the CPS market). This was highlighted in a report by Nancy Schaefer, former State Senator from Georgia (http://kidjacked.com/family/schaefer.asp...) . Simply google “CPS Corruption” or go to YouTube and look at the news reports. Then go to kidjacked.com and fightcps.com and read all the horror stories.
Posted by oldschool (anonymous) on August 30, 2008 at 7:17 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Well you know if the SYSTEM would not come back and take these kids and but them right back in the same situation you might have more Foster Parents. It is heart renching to see these kids go through some of the things they endure and then the state voices the parents are rehabilated and put the kids right back a few months later. I want the state to wake up cause us good loving, caring parents can not handle the torchure these kids by through going back and fourth through the system. I want you to listen to a song by JASON MICHAEL CARROL by the name of ALYSIA LIES. Now that is sad but it happens everyday. I was a Foster Parent but could not continue cause it hurt to bad to watch these kids beg not to go back and the state put them back and even worse things happened. SO SAD :( :( This is such a touch and heart renching subject to me that I cry just thinking about it and remembering things I saw and heard.
Posted by saywhat (anonymous) on August 30, 2008 at 8:11 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I agree with oldschool. The only thing you can do is pray because the system won't ever change. The state takes kids away and then they give them right back.
Who is accountable when something happens to the child? The Judge? The social worker? The child's lawyer? The parent?
There is no way I could take a child into my home and nurture and love them and then watch them go back into the same situation. I do have the upmost respect for those that do but I wouldn't put myself or my family through that.
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