CASTLE ROCK, Colo. (KDVR) — A local foster care program is looking for families who are willing to foster children.
Organizations said they are seeing more kids who need a foster family now post-pandemic.
Hope’s Promise does domestic and international orphan care, and since the summer of 2020, they received a license to connect kids with foster families from their Castle Rock office.
Right now, they are actively recruiting foster families for thousands of children across the state.
They have three times as many children as families to foster them.
According to the Colorado Department of Human Services:
- In 2021 (total for the year), 7,986 Colorado children and youth lived in an out-of-home placement like a foster family, group home or residential treatment center for their safety.
- Currently, there are 3,738 children and youth in foster care in Colorado. (Updated Oct. 18, 2022)
- Currently, there are 2,495 certified kinship and foster families in Colorado. (Updated Oct. 18, 2022)
Beth Woods, the executive director of Hope’s Promise, said kids are often placed into foster care due to abuse, neglect, substance abuse, or mental health issues.
The goal is always to reunite kids with their biological parents assuming the treatment plan put in place is successful.
They are looking for willing families to ensure that kids stay with the foster family instead of bouncing around which can compound the issue.
“But oftentimes, kids do bounce around in the foster care system. Each time they leave a family that’s just another trauma that compounds the initial trauma that they’ve experienced. So it gets harder and harder for kids to learn to trust that their caregivers are going to be there for them and that they have the ability to count on someone to meet their needs,” said Woods.
There is a rigorous certification process that includes home study, medical reports, and criminal background checks, as well as a series of interviews with a caseworker about your upbringing and parenting style.
Hope’s Promise’s executive director believes part of the process can be intimidating because of the certification process but also she said that sometimes there are hesitations about the commitment and fear of attachment along the way. She said going into the process with a certain mindset can help ease fears.
“Whether I have this child in my family for a week or a year, however much I can get to them however much I can pour into them will forever change the trajectory of their life. So it’s worth it. It’s worth the sadness, it’s worth the goodbyes to know that you’ve changed the child’s life,” Woods said.
There are also other ways to help including donating kids’ clothes to their lending closet at their office. It allows kids who come in, with oftentimes just a trash bag full of belongings, to have clothes to make them feel confident with their new family moving forward.
Woods was a foster mother herself, however, her kids were unable to go back to their biological mother so she ended up adopting three boys who are now in their 20s.
Success stories like hers are what she now works to achieve at her job at Hope’s Promise.
If you are interested in learning more, they will be having an informational tent at the Castle Rock Starlighting coming up Saturday, Nov. 19 from 2 p.m. – 6 p.m.