Children are waiting… Become a Resource Parent for you!

What is Out-of-Home Care? The Department for Community Based Services’ (DCBS) Division of Protection and Permanency is committed to keeping families together and safe. DCBS makes every effort to keep children with their birth parents or relatives. However, sometimes a family is unable to care for their children, or the court decides that it is no longer safe for the children to remain with their family.

When it’s necessary for kids to leave their home, it’s the agency’s philosophy that they grow up better in families. Foster care, or out- of-home care, is one of many protective services offered to children and families. Foster families, or Resource families, are trained to help children deal with frightening and traumatic events in their lives. Resource families provide temporary, 24-hour care in a home setting when it is necessary for a child to be separated from his/ her family. OOHC is temporary until the child can be reunited with his/ her family or is provided with another type of permanent living situation if reunification is not an option.

Eastern Mountain Region Foster Care Facts Did you know? There are over 500 children in Out-of-Home Care in the Eastern Mountain Region alone. There are about 7,000 statewide. The greatest percentage of these children are over the age of 12 (47%). They may be part of a sibling group, may represent different races and ethnic groups, and may have suffered some type of abuse or neglect in their lives. There are about 20 children in the state’s Special Needs Adoption Program in our region at any given time. There are 350 statewide available for adoption. These children are waiting for a permanent home.

Types of Children in OOHC Most of these children have been abused, neglected, ignored, molested, and/or starved. Some of them just have nowhere to go. They don’t have a home of their own, and no one to take care of them. They have sometimes been shuffled around from home to home, and want to stay in one place. Some have physical, mental and/or emotional disabilities that have been there since birth, or that have developed later in life, maybe as a result of their abuse, neglect, or abandonment. Sometimes, they come in sibling groups of two, three, four or more. They desperately need to stay together. They come in all different ages, sizes, colors, and religions. And, on any given day, there are hundreds of them who need someone like you to show them love and compassion.

If you’ve been considering becoming a foster parent or adopting a child, it’s time to take the next step! Children are waiting!!! You can be a resource parent if: You attend an informational meeting and complete 30 hours of training You are in good financial standing and can support your family You own or rent your home You are able to pass all background checks You are at least 21 years of age and can be married or single

For more information about any of the children you’ve seen here or others available, please visit; Or call; For more information about how to become an adoptive or foster parent, call; KIDS