Groups that recruit foster and adoptive parents are stepping up efforts to spread awareness for the need to draw more county residents who are willing to provide homes for parentless children in Prince George’s.
Prince George’s currently has about 600 children in foster care. Placing them in loving and supportive homes has become a top priority for the Prince George’s Foster Parent Association and the Maryland Foster Parent Association.
The two groups recently hosted a recruitment and retention day in Fedex Field’s parking lot, which attracted more than 200 folks according to county spokesman Ransom Washington Jr.
During the four-hour event, parents, who already serve in foster and adoptive roles, answered questions and encouraged those who stopped by to extend themselves to children in need.
Washington said a number of visitors to the event took pamphlets describing the criteria for foster parents and information on upcoming sessions that provide a more detailed overview of the foster parenting process. He believes more people will get involved as awareness spreads.
“I think a lot of people do it because they know someone who did it, and lots of people get involved because they have relatives who became foster or adoptive parents,” Washington said. Also, a number of grandparents decide to enter the foster care system because they don’t have access to the birth parents and they need the support that foster care provides.
Currently, foster parents receive a monthly stipend of about $700 that will increase in July. Foster parents also receive daycare assistance and respite care services in case parents need a break, have an emergency, or need to travel out of town.
Washington said the monthly stipend and the range of services increases if a child has special needs.
At the moment, most of the children in the county’s foster care system are 16 and older and there is a push to find homes to mentor their steps into young adulthood, Washington said.
“A lot of times when kids get older they want to leave the foster care system, but they really aren’t ready,” he said. Foster youth can remain in the program until age 21 if they are enrolled in an educational program or working and part of an independent preparatory living program.
The next largest group of kids falls in the 11 to 15 year old range; most of the kids in both groups are largely African American.
For more information on becoming a foster or adoptive parent call 301-909-CARE.
--PGS Staff
|
