Trending
When a child is removed from their home due to neglect or abuse, it's important that they have somewhere to go that still has a familiarity. That's where a community of people willing to open up their homes as foster parents steps in and offers that secure space and continuity. Unfortunately, the need for foster homes sometimes outpaces the number of people willing to take that step.
"Our agency strives very hard to keep kids in their community," said Kelly Allmaras, Resource Family Caseworker at Lycoming Children & Youth Services (CYS).
"It's important for kids when they're going through a horrific traumatic event of having to leave their home and their family to be able to have the ability to wake up and go sit in the same classroom with their teachers and their friends, driving down the street and knowing that this is where we go the grocery store or this is the park I play in ," she said.
Allmaras admitted that there are times that can't happen. There is no way to predict when a call might come in for foster care. There may be many in one month, or there might be one.
Mark Longenberger, director or support services at CYS pointed out that the agency has partnerships with local school districts so that even if a child is placed in a different district they will transport them to their original district.
"Unfortunately if we don't have enough homes locally, then we're looking at an hour, two hours away, which is just not feasible then to transport to school. So, then all those bonds are being broken," Longenberger said.
So, why aren't there more people willing to take a child, who is already under a great deal of stress, into their homes? Allmaras attributes it in part to a misconception that people have about those in foster care.
There's a misconception of kids in foster care, or stigma that they have behavior issues. They have these things. It's not the norm...I have rarely met a teenager that comes into care that really is not a manageable teenager. I see the opposite. I see teenagers come out of their shell. I see teenagers thrive off of stability. I see teenagers thrive off of structure. They're really amazing kids, honestly," Allmaras said.
Longenberger believes the misconception is that the kids are in foster care because of their issues while it's really family issues that are the root cause.
"There's a lot of drug and alcohol use, homelessness, instability, things that you know we try to help with and front load services as an agency, but we get to the point where we have to assure safety, and then that's where foster care comes in. So yeah, I think that probably is one of the main misconceptions," Longenberger said.
"But also, society as a whole, it's hard to find people to volunteer and put themselves out there. Big Brothers/Big Sisters is having that issue right now, just trying to find volunteers to mentor kids and that's an hour a week compared to 24 hours, seven days a week for however long the child's there," Longenberger said.
Allmaras agreed with his assessment.
"I think society overall has changed over the past 10,15, 20 years, I've lived here my whole life. This is my community. My kids were born here. They went to school here. I've always believed that it's our job to take care of our community. It's our job to step in and help our youth when it's needed. This is their home too, and they need people like us," she said.
And the need is increasing. On this particular day Allmaras said there were 44 children in foster care. A year and a half ago it was just under 30. Although the numbers fluctuate, it is usually in the 30's.
"We do have a couple of adoptions today and then a couple more later this month, so we'll be down to 39 at that point. But you know, a sibling group of five kids changes that number in a hurry," Longenberger noted.
And that is another issue. It is difficult to place a sibling group because even though a foster family might want to take all of the children the rule is that there cannot be more than six children in the home and that includes the foster parents' biological children.
"So, there's a difference between the heart to do so and the ability because you can only have so many children in your home when you're a foster home," Allmaras said.
Over the last five or ten years there has also been a push to place children with kinship connections in order to get them with people they already know. Longenberger said that CYS pursues that as much as possible doing searches for relatives who might be suitable to care for the children.
"Because sometimes they can make a private arrangement, and we'll still go out and ensure the safety of the children and make sure that the family has everything they need. But we would rather that occur than have them potentially with strangers in a strange home in a strange city," he said.
In terms of time commitment, a child might need to be fostered for a couple of days, a week, a month or forever, Allmaras explained.
Although reunification with the biological parents is the ultimate goal, sometimes that just is not possible so foster parents would have the option of adopting a child to give them a permanent place in the family.
"When we think a child is going to be free for adoption-we work the case and we realize that for whatever reason the parents cannot do the parent thing-we ask the home where they're at if they're a permanency option because that's important too. We don't want a child just to be a foster child forever. We want them to be either adopted or set up a permanent legal custodianship, so there is some permanency for them," Longenberger said.
"But it's also important for us to have those families that are willing to take an emergency placement that might only be for 30 days, because we also need those placements too, where we know it is going to be temporary. Maybe a mom had a relapse and needs to go to rehab, but she's going to be back in 30 to 60 days. We need those families that are also available to say yes, we're going to protect your child while you're away, and then when you come back, we're going to help get the child back to you," he said.
And it is important that the connection between parent and child remains, if at all possible, in order to help them deal with the trauma of being separated.
"It's important that the children continue to see their parents no matter what the issues are. We want to set up visits and make sure they're seeing them or talking to them on the phone so they do know that their family is safe because sometimes unfortunately the parents are being taken care of by the children and they're almost like the caregivers and they want to make sure they're okay. So we do make sure there's visitation, usually supervised in the beginning to make sure everybody's safe," Longenberger said.
"Even if the parents are in jail for some reason, we have the ability to do video visits at the prison, so that's beneficial to the kids too. So they can see them and talk to them, making sure they're doing okay. It's definitely traumatic...all the situations, but giving those kids that reassurance helps," he added.
The extent of trauma is often determined by the age of the child when they are placed in foster care. A baby would likely have no concept of what is happening.
"Every kid's different, and every situation is different. You could have a child coming into care from drugs, you know, or there could be physical abuse or mental health issues, and a child coming into care whose mom might have been going through a psychotic break. It's going to be okay because they finally have peace and quiet," Allmaras said.
"You know every kid's different, and trauma affects every kid at every stage differently in life. I've seen kids when we go back to the exception of the stigma. Sometimes kids coming into care act very relieved. You know what I mean? They don't have the stigma of acting out or because they finally are able to take a deep breath and relax," she added.
Plus there is support for the foster families, so they don't have to go it alone. They have a caseworker who is available when they need them and often they develop relationships with other foster families.
"My goal is to always offer that support to them because what they're doing is very difficult, and they need somebody to talk to. They need somebody to vent. They need somebody to hold their hand while they cry," Allmaras said.
And if a child needs services those would continue after they're put in foster care, which is another reason why it's important that they stay in the community.
In order to become a foster parent, contact the CYS office at: 570-326-7895 for more information and to begin the process and to schedule a home visit. There are background checks, training that must be completed and other paperwork in order to be licensed.
We talk about community, and people in this community don't realize that there's kids in our community that need us to step up and take care of them when needed, Allmaras said.