I have felt the tug on my heart for a while to open our home up to foster children.  We(Kim and I) signed up for an orientation thru DFCS a few weeks ago and were shocked at some of the things we found out. 

 The first, is that there are only 10 +/-  or so Foster Homes available in Bulloch county (pop. around 70,000) (averaging needing to place 20 kids a year, or so.)  These are thru DFCS, I do not think (maybe?) there are many  private agencies at work in our county.  

 The second, due to staff shortages  , there are currently NO trainings scheduled to start the certification process for us or the other 4 families who were at the orientation. (That I have been made aware of as of this writing)

What happens when they do not have homes for kids who need them? 

The Solution:

I have no idea!!.

If there is an organization of private citizens in Bulloch to help with this problem I am not aware it.  I am familiar with who to call to help with Habitat Houses, Cancer Walks, Humane Society, Worn Threads, ACTS ministry, Food Bank, Keep Bulloch Beautiful, etc........etc..........

BUT , when a child.  Who may have never known Love or Value for an entire day of there little lives, needs someone to love them, and you want to help.  Who do you call?    DFCS?  They are short staffed and overworked simply trying to care for the children in the system now.  They have been hammered with workload and furlough days.  I don't know, but if I had to guess I would say many many of those furlough days have been worked gratis.

I have more questions than answers at this point.

I do know that I am being called to do something. WE  have to do something.    I am trying to gain all the background knowledge I can to best know how to attack this problem at the local level. 

Going Forward:

I need help.  But I am not sure how or what.  I have a call in to the local DFCS director and hope to hear from her soon to try and evaluate what a private group can do to help. 

We have a verbal commitment from the Statesboro Down Town Development authority to sponsor us thru  their Constant Contact account.  They have an account and can, at no charge, sponsor us and give us a totally free full access account thru the Cares4Kids program.  This email list will be used as the starter for that, as soon as we set up a 501(3)c entity.  (Thank you Allen !)

Future emails should be directed to fosteringfamilies@gmail.com   We will probably set up the 501(3)c as Fostering Families in Bulloch County, or some such.

I have a loose nit idea of an organization that would recruit new foster families and assist in their training and home studies.  It would also serve as a clearinghouse for support information for foster families.

The training/certification is currently the bottleneck. I am having a hard time with that.  Innocent kids waiting on the "responsible grown ups" to get it together to help.

These kids NEED your prayers!!! 

Any insights, guidance, or references to knowledgeable people   would be GREATLY appreciated. 

I hope this finds you well.

Chris

cell 690-2498 (if you don't get me PLEASE leave a message, I will call you back)