The views and opinions expressed in to the point are those of the host of the program and its guests.

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Doni: In this country... more than 400,000 children ar in foster care on any given day.

Foster care is a temporary living situation for kids whose parents cannot take care of them, and whose need for care has come to the attention of child welfare agency staff.

The goal is for children and youth to live in stable families, an admirable effort and certainly the right thing to do.

So why is it so difficult to protect the most vulnerable members of one of the richest countries in the world?

Donna Seed, deputy director of Lucas County Children's Services, and Chaunta Beal, director of social services, will discuss the challenge faced by our foster care system and the efforts to overcome them.

I'm Doni Miller, and welcome... To the Point.

Connect with us on our social media pages.

You know, you can always email me at doni_miller@wgte.org.

And for this episode and other additional extras, don't hesitate to go to wgte.org/To the point... we are so happy to have you with us today.

We're talking to Donna Seed.

Donna is the deputy directo of the Lucas County Children's Services, and Chaunta Beal did it get it right that time?

Got it right that time.

All right.

The director of social services, again from Lucas County Children's Services.

This is a topic that, breaks my heart to talk about, but I think it's a topic that we need to talk about a lot more than we do.

And it has to do with foster care for kids.

Is it difficult in this in Lucas County to find foster care?

I think I know what your answer is going to be, but I want everybody else to hear it too.

Donna: Yes, it absolutely is.

I think that child welfare around the state, definitely here in Lucas County and around the nation, is really facing a crisi of a shortage of foster parents.

We probabl would not be able to do this job anywhere near the success rates that we have had.

Without foster parents here supporting and helping us, and kinship providers as well.

Our caregivers are everything to the success of children in this county that are in the child welfare system.

On any given day, we have probably 848 children in care here in Lucas County.

Wow.

And I don't think most people realize that because that is quite an increase in children and care that we hav experienced since Covid ended.

Doni: Why do you think that is?

Is it was it because of Covid?

What what caused that increase, do you think?

Donna: Well, I think Covid had an impact on the number of children comin into care for several reasons.

One is that there was a period of time where resources really moved in a different way.

The other thing is we lost many resources during that period of time.

So families did not have the same level of supports that they may have had even several years before that epidemic.

Doni: Yeah, that makes sense.

Donna: What we saw is that families were gravely impacted by a lack of resources.

And whatever that happens in our community, whether it's loss of jobs, whether it's loss of services that used to exist and could no longer sustain themselves.

We see a direct impact on the famil and then on children in general.

And unfortunately, some of those impacts brought those children into our system and ultimately into our care.

We also saw quite a bit o families who became a little bit more frightened about taking strangers into their homes.

And, you know, that's always a challenge for any family when they make that decision.

But it really became impactful during the epidemic that we went through.

And what we fin is that we're still living with some of the impacts of that, even though we're several years outside of it.

So we find that we've had a shortage of homes in the past few years in terms of our recruitment efforts, and we find that we have less resources in place in the community that can help them care for these children.

Doni: Wow.

What happens to the kids if there is no foster care for them?

Chaunta?

Chaunta: So we work very diligently.

First off, we look for kinship homes.

Doni: Which is a kinship home.

Chaunta: Yes.

So kinship can be relative or it can be a family friend, someone who has a close tie or bond with the family in the child.

And so at Lucas County, we have really valued a kin first culture.

And for us, that's the first option for all children that need placement.

And right now, as of this month, we're around 45% of the children are placed in kin homes.

And so our job is to search and find those kin families, but also to wrap those resources and services around, the caregivers so that they can continue to maintai the children's placement safely.

Doni: Is i difficult to be a foster parent?

But let me let me ask that differently.

Is it difficult to, become a foster parent?

Donna: It's not difficult to become a foster parent.

I think there is some difficulty in being a foster parent, but I think there's difficult in raising children in general.

Doni: Yeah.

Donna: So I think that those of us who, you know, raise children or are somehow caregivers with children within our family systems recognize that it's quite easy to become a foster parent.

You just have to meet certain requirements such as you be 18 years of age, you know, be willing to come to the trainings that we provide for you and then be willing to provide care under the guidelines that we offer and that we assist you and help you with.

As you begin that journey.

I think the difficulty comes i the fact that you are changing and shifting a piece of your life somehow to open your heart to other individuals being in your home.

And some of these children come with their own set of issues and their own sets of needs.

And we have to remember that we're asking you to take children in that have been exposed to trauma and now more than ever need you to nurture them.

Doni: And I think actually that that's a huge issue, the perception that you're going to bring into your home a chil that is more trouble than not.

And the concern about, the influence that that might have on the family setting, but there are resources to help with those things.

Donna: So absolutely are.

First of all, we're in your home monthly or more.

Whatever you need from us we can be there to help monitor the situation, guide yo to the services that you need, and even help you with what's going on in the home.

Our workers are there to support you every step of the way, and typically in foster and kinship care, you have even more than one worker coming.

So you'll have a foster worker or a kinship worker assigned to your home, and then you'll have a caseworker that's assigned to the child.

So we'll have multiple supports that are coming.

And sometimes we hear like maybe we come a little bit too frequently.

But it's really nice to kno that sometimes when we do that, even though it may disrupt your routine a little bit, you know that when you need us, we're going to be there.

Doni: Yeah.

Do either of you have a story that sticks out in your mind?

And I didn't ask you to prepare for this, so I understand if one doesn't come readily about the impact of foster care on one of the placements, one of the children.

Donna: You know I think that there are so many that are impactful in regard to what these families provide to these children, bu I actually can think of several I can think of a foster home that we have in our Treatment Foster network, which is a network that takes home.

It takes in really difficult children into their home in terms of their behaviors and their trauma.

But this child specifically had it come to our attention through an injur that had occurred on a job site.

This child had been o and this child spoke no English and we had to find a home.

That of course was Spanish speaking that understood that this child not only having a language barrier, had a barrier of not understanding the culture in this country, had been brought to this countr in a very different type of way.

And the family that we found not only spoke Spanish and was able to accommodate this child's needs in that regard, but had the child come meet them in a community center where the entire Spanish community, Spanish speaking community wrapped around this child who is very successful in this home with his progression of education here, speaking the English language and making his way towards emancipation, success fully.

Doni: What a marvelous story.

I mean, he must have felt honored and loved and comfortable.

Donna: Yes, and really credit that foster parent for setting up the type of receiving situation.

And I think all foster parents do that.

How you receive children really sets the tone for what can happen in your home, because it created immediate safety and community around that child.

Like you are not alone here.

And I think another resource that we have for families, as we're working very closely with the development of, I say, a 117 house coming to our community.

Yes.

And the whole purpose of that is to help foster families invite and engage these children in a way that makes them feel nurtured, safe, loved, comfortable, and not afraid to go into that unknown situation.

Doni: That is a wonderful organization.

We've actually had a pleasure of having them here.

But for folks who don't know, can you briefly tell them what Isaiah 117 is?

Donna: Oh, absolutely.

Isaiah 117 is a home that will be established here in our community that when children are removed from their homes by no fault of their own, they will no longer be brought to our agency to wait in.

You know, we're an office building.

Doni: Right.

Donna: But they will be taken into a home like structure where they are met by families who wish to make them feel the safest and the most comfortable, and to feel as if their needs in the immediacy of that situation are being met.

And they understand that it's going to be alright as they progress forward.

Yeah, it's not only helps the child though, it also helps the foster family because sometimes our childre come in the middle of the night.

Yeah and sometimes children come in and we have to take quite some time to locate a home because we still have suc a desperate need for families.

Yes.

And so that waiting period does not have to be alone in a room, but it's with people around you that are providing that sense of nurturing.

Doni: It is one of the most innovative programs, and compassion passionate programs that I have had the privilege of knowin about in a very, very long time.

And you guys make great partners in this effort.

Would you stay with me?

We've got lots more to tal about when we come back, okay?

Yeah, stay with us.

We'll be right back, I promise.

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Doni: As always, you can connect with us on our social media pages and you can email me at doni_miller@e.org.

And if you want to see this episode again or any others, please go to wgte.org/to the point, we have with us today, as you would know, from the first segment.

Donna.

Donna is the deputy director of the Lucas County Children's Services, and Chaunta Beal, director of social services for that same organization.

You guys are doing amazing work.

And at this time of year this discussion is so important because there are so many children out there who have not been connected to families.

And, as you said, there are over 800 children in foster care at any given time in, in this community.

So we need to talk about this.

We need to make sure that people understand the importance of this issue and what they can do to help.

And you all are doing some amazing things in finding families.

Congratulations.

And you're on your one Ohio.

Successful funding application.

That's pretty cool.

I know that that was a tough competition for that grant.

So congratulations on getting it.

And would you tell u exactly what the funding is for?

Chaunta: Yes.

So we are very excite to receive, funding from the One Ohio grant.

We actually have been awarded one of the highest grants in the state of Ohio.

We're very excited.

3000 $463,000.

Yeah.

And the it's just exciting to see what we can do with those funds.

And so we submitted our gran to be able to expand our family finding efforts.

And so we did discuss that earlier that 45% of children are placed with kinship, families.

But we want to continue to expand that.

And this grant will allow us t work with families specifically who have been impacted by opioids.

And so our hope is to continue to find, search and place children with kin, but also to support them and enhance what our support looks like.

We are collaborating with partners to make this happen.

We will be, collaborating with, connect, to family, and they will help us coach us through some difficult challenges of locating families, some of some maybe of your harder, resources to find.

And we also are going to be able to partner with the area Office of Aging in their Kinship Navigator program.

They receive the exceptional status last year of, exceptional work for their program.

And so we're so excited, that they can partner with us to be able to provide resources and stabilize relatives even further.

Last year, not many people mayb know this last year, the kinship Navigator program saw 200% increase of referrals from our agency.

And so they have been a wonderful partner.

And we're excited to see them wor alongside us in this, project.

Doni: Yeah.

What kinds of what kinds of activities that can people who ar interested in working with you?

Volunteers.

I assume that you do take volunteers or.

No.

Donna: We really don't do quite a bit of volunteers within our agency, but we do refer them out to agencies that support children, such as the Kinship Navigator program or Isaiah House.

117 would be a great place for volunteer opportunity is in the community.

It's really difficult volunteering with children as they come in to our agency because of maybe the level of trauma and we really like to have specifically trained people and caseworkers that are dealing with that situation in the immediacy of it.

But we do appreciate volunteers that want to come in and mayb work with some of our programing we do, such as our Christmas drive or different drives that they could hos within their own organizations or religious institutions, or to help some of those member agencies that service our children.

Doni: That's really important information.

And the reason I ask the question is that this sounds like a massive undertaking, a massive undertaking.

And we all know that one of the most expensive portions of any program is staff.

And people look for ways to help with children, even if they're not able to be, a foster parent.

So thank you, Donna, for for that information.

What outcomes do you expect from this?

we are definitely hopin our goal was to reach over 50% consistentl through our agency of children being placed with kinship.

That's what we designed within our our, grant, but we hope to well exceed that.

We will push every single day to see how we can enhance our placement with can But in regard also kinship navigator program plans on doing podcast, handbooks, resources conferences with a sponsor.

And I think it's going to be very exciting to see what they can do.

Doni: What would your podcast focus on?

Yeah, that's really that's really a creative way to approach this.

Chaunta: So they were talking about providing, resources, explaining what's available in the community, explaining how to handle those challenging behaviors.

Touching on mental health stress, anxiety and just providing the the real life support of what they can, what they need.

Doni: That's right.

And letting people know that anybody can do this with the support that you all provide them Is there is there financial support for, foster parents, for those foster parents who for those people who might want to be foster parents but feel that they jus their budget just won't handle?

Oh, another mouth to feed there.

Donna: Absolutely.

Yes.

We well, we do focus so heavily on can culture.

We still need foster parents just as much as we need can to be present for our children.

First of all, foster parents also help keep children local in this community, and we know that keepin children in their school systems and their community around things where they have connections outside of family helps them with their stability and their adjustment when the have to step into these changes.

So foster parents remain as valuable.

And we do support foster parents through a per diem.

And so, based upon the level of care you're providing, is based upon the per diem payment that you would receive in your home monthly to help take care of those children.

And it isn't just a per diem payment we provide.

We also provide clothing vouchers, and we'll support you with different items that you may need.

As children are coming into your home.

We recognize from our placing maybe a sibling grou that you don't have everything you'll need right away for that, right?

So we're really supportive and providing diapers, wipes, clothing, situations you'll need because often children are coming with nothing, nothing.

And so we're very supportive in how we give resources to both foster and kinship populations.

And, you know, a I was talking about the podcast, I'm thinking that's not just something that reaches relatives, that reaches our foster families, too.

And you benefit from the same resources and information that will be put out on that podcast, where you'll be able to find out, oh, there is somebody that can help me, where I can speak to my caseworker a little bit more about how I access and find that service.

Doni: Yeah.

And everyone should remember, I think that the goal is to, wherever possible, reunite the family.

Did I get that right?

Donna: Absolutely, absolutely.

Whenever it is safe and at all possible, that is always the plan for children who are removed from birth.

Parent care is to reunite back into that situation and when it is not the two greatest resource that we have found that continue to service those children to permanency and providing adoptive and stable placement are kinship and foster parents.

They are our greatest sourc of individuals who move forward and adopt and provide permanency to these children.

Doni: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And in in that, in that regard, Chaunta, when do you expect to implement your program?

Chaunta: Right.

So, the funding is available as of January of 2025.

So we will be we've already, put together a team who is working on implementing the grant and building all of the, team members together.

That will help launch.

We hope to be in place by at least March of 2025.

Doni: 2025.

And how long will that funding take you?

Chaunta: We received a two year grant with the ability to be abl to extend that out and reapply for additional funding.

Initially, we had requeste three years and we were granted two, so we're hopeful that it we show enough progress that we can ask for that third year.

Doni: Okay, we just have a few minutes left, but I'd like to, get some information out to those folks who might be thinking about being foster parents.

What's the training like?

How long is it?

Is it free?

Donna: The training is fre and it's actually been shortened and it's ours.

And there have been several changes made that some trainings are in person, some you can do hybrid which means you have some online options and in-person options, and some are strictly online.

So we're trying to accommodate people in a number of different situations in their life.

Doni: Online because.

Donna: We recognize that, you know, training may be challenging, but the state recently lessened the requirement and the number of hours that you have to have in the initial part of the training.

At the very beginning, it used to be 36 hours and we've moved that down to 24 and the idea is that maybe retention isn't as full and complete to bring everything into that first initial training, but to provide that ongoing training throughout the time that you're fostering as you start to experience some of the issues that you may need, further training on.

And so that training is absolutely free, you can call and inquire if you have any questions about this training to 4192133336.

And somebody will be there to get your call, get in touch with you and certainly let you know exactl what the process will involve.

We run numerous trainings throughout the year, so it isn't just one time a year you can come in, but there are different times throughout the year.

We run usually about eigh sessions of pre-service training to get you up and ready to move right into the foster experience.

Doni: Okay, can single moms, single dads, anybody?

Chaunta: Yes.

And I would, definitely encourag everyone who might be interested if they have question about any part of the process, to definitely call, but yes, absolutely.

Doni: Great.

Thank you guys so much for being here today.

This again is a is a topic.

If we could talk about it every week I would talk about it every week.

Thank you so much and thank you all for joining us today.

Be kind just because you can.

I'll see you next time on... To the Point.

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