Webster County is in need of people to become and support resource (foster) parents, according to social worker Samantha Crimm of the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services.
Crimm, division director II of CPS’s Faith-Based and Volunteer Services, addressed the Eupora Rotary Club on Dec. 19 about the effort to recruit people to help provide and support foster children’s needs, strengthen families and support CPS workers.
“We need foster homes,” she told Rotarians.
Approximately nine children are in the state’s custody in Webster County, she said, although all are not in foster homes. Crimm, of Eupora, said Webster County has no resource parents at this time and only has relative placement.
Substance abuse is involved in the majority of cases when children are removed from their family, according to Crimm.
She provided this additional information about becoming a resource parent:
1. What does it take to become a resource parent?
Foster parents are now referred to as resource parents. They are individuals or married couples who complete the steps to become licensed to serve as caretakers for foster children.
They work with birth families and hope changes are made that will allow the children to return to a safe home. If eligible, resource parents may choose to adopt the children if returning to their birth families is not possible and the children are legally freed by the court system to be adopted.
Resource families provide a safe and stable environment for children who may be experiencing stress and trauma from recent life changes. They receive a monthly reimbursement to help offset the cost of caring for children. Social workers visit the home on a regular basis to provide services and support to the children and family.
Mississippi resource parents are people who:
• Are legal Mississippi residents.
• Can pass a criminal background check.
• Are at least 21 years old.
• Are legally married or legally single.
• Have no more than four children living in the home.
• Are financially self-supporting.
The goal for most children in foster care is to be reunited with their parents. Resource families work through CPS with birth parents to achieve this goal. The length of time a child will stay with you depends on many factors. It could be for a few days, a few months, or much longer.
2. What are the biggest needs for foster children?
One of the biggest needs in Mississippi is finding loving temporary homes for its vulnerable children. There are approximately 6000 children in foster care in the state. Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services has a goal of finding and licensing at least 300 new resource homes in Mississippi in 2018.
When a child is taken into state custody, CPS works to cause as little disruption as possible for the child. Ideally, this would be to place a child in a resource home located in his/her own county of residence and allow the child to remain in their same school district, if possible.
Sometimes a foster child can be placed with a relative within their county of residence, but this is not always the case. When a relative placement is not possible and a local, non-relative foster family is not available, foster children may be placed out of county. It is critical that more foster home placements be found to provide a loving, safe and stable home environment for our state’s foster children.
3. What are some of the misconceptions about foster care that the agency is having to work around?
The purpose of a foster placement is to provide a temporary but nurturing environment for a child in state custody — not to be a permanent situation or a path to adoption. Although many resource parents end up adopting a child placed into their care, a child is not automatically eligible for adoption until all attempts have been made to reunite the child safely with a birth parent.
4. What is involved in training a family to become a foster/resource family?
To become a resource parent one must be:
• At least 21 years of age
• Legally married or legally single
• A legal resident of Mississippi
• Able to pass a criminal background check
• Financially sufficient
• Parenting no more than four children living in their home.
Steps to be licensed as a resource parent include:
• Orientation/Overview of licensing process
Application
• PATH Training Classes
• Safety Training Classes
• Home Visits/Interviews/Home study
• Background Check
A person can contact 1-800-821-9157 to inquire about becoming a resource parent and to request an MDCPS application through the local county CPS or attend a Rescue 100 event. If you decide to contact the local county office for resource parent training or attend a Rescue 100 training event the outcome is the same. You are a licensed resource parent through MDCPS.
Rescue 100 is a collaborative effort between the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services, the Mississippi Commission on Children’s Justice and churches across the state of Mississippi to provide loving homes for children in the foster system.
These organizations work together to streamline the training and certification process for resource families — most of which happens over one weekend after a family attends a brief orientation/informational meeting. Trainings will be held in different parts of the state throughout the year. You must attend orientation before being allowed to attend the Rescue 100 training.
The first Rescue 100 training event for 2018 is taking place at the Vineyard Church in Booneville on Jan. 26-28. There will be a Rescue 100 training event in every area of the state as the year progresses. Crimm said a training event is scheduled for this area in November. For more information on a Rescue 100 event near you call 769-798-3586.
Once the trainings and paperwork are completed and background check are cleared on the families, social workers will then start the process of completing the home studies. Once families have successfully finished their home studies, CPS will license them to receive children based on their preference for age and gender.
5. Tell me about supporting resource families. Is it like “adopting the family”-type of thing?
CPS needs support and participation from local churches to identify families who can fill this critical void in Mississippi’s child safety net.
Some members of a church may be interested in becoming resource parents. Other members can help in other ways — by supporting those new foster families by doing something as simple as helping with meal preparation or respite care when they need a break from caregiving.
6. If you aren’t able to be a resource parent, how can you help?
“I cannot do everything. But I can do something (Thomas Everette Hale).” Sometimes people are not able to be a foster parent for whatever reason. However, you can provide support to a foster child and the local county CPS office.
CPS needs help with providing hygiene products for foster children, purchasing car seats for the county offices, providing pack-and-plays for foster children. You may be willing to share your talents with a foster child, such as teaching piano lessons.
