Foster Care Thrives When Communities Step Up
Foster Care and Community Support: How You Can Make a Difference Without —or While Considering— Becoming a Foster Parent
“Ohio currently has approximately 16,700 children in foster care, yet there are only just over 7,000 licensed family homes to meet this need. An additional 3,400 live in foster family homes with relatives and approximately 1,800 children live in foster group home settings,” according to a May 21, 2024 announcement by the 136th General Assembly of the Ohio House of Representatives. There’s no way around it – the biggest need in the foster care community is for more people to become licensed for foster care, kinship care, and/or respite care to welcome children in need into their homes. But that doesn’t mean it’s the only way to help! If you feel called to foster care and community support, there are many ways to lend a hand and make a difference.
Who in the Foster Care Community Needs Support?
Everyone! It’s a community that leads with its heart, and there are always more children, more families, more care givers, and more organizations that need help in ways that range from random acts of kindness to grand gestures, fun to funding, and everything in between. Maybe you’re new to the foster care community, or maybe you’ve been a foster parent in the past and still want to help. The best place to start is close to home. Here are three areas to focus your foster care community support:
- Foster Families
- Kinship Families
- Former Foster Youth
- Foster Care Agencies and Other Community Organizations
How Do You Find Organizations, Facilities, and Families that Need Foster Care Community Support?
The first place to look for connections to local foster care agencies and other organizations is your state and county government entities. In Ohio, you will find many resources and links:
- Ohio Department of Children and Youth (DCY) – The Ohio DCY oversees child welfare services in Ohio and provides extensive information about foster care.
- Ohio Children's Alliance – An association of private, nonprofit child-serving agencies in Ohio.
- Local County Children Services Agencies – Each county in Ohio has a children's services agency that can provide information on foster care and other child welfare services in the area.Your local United Way and churches are also a great place to look for organized opportunities to provide community support for foster families. Find your local United Way, contact your church or pick one near your home and ask about joining or supporting a program to help foster children.
What Kinds of Support Do Former Foster Youth Need?
Once a foster child reaches the age of 18, they are technically “aged out” of the foster care system, but there is no magic age where the need for support ends. Former foster youth face unique challenges as they transition into adulthood, often lacking the familial support systems that many of their peers rely on and that they had access to when they were living with loving foster families. Key areas where they need support include:
- Stable Housing: Many former foster youth experience housing instability, with a significant percentage facing homelessness shortly after aging out of the system.
- Education and Employment: Access to higher education and stable employment is crucial. Programs like Ohio's Bridges 18–21 provide financial assistance and support for those pursuing education or employment.
- Life Skills Development: Skills in budgeting, cooking, and household maintenance are essential for independence. The Bridges program offers guidance in these areas to help youth achieve self-sufficiency.
- Mental Health Services: Addressing trauma and mental health is vital. Many former foster youth benefit from counseling and support services to navigate the challenges of independence.
For those motivated to focus their foster care community support on former foster youth, we recommend looking for opportunities and programs in local organizations like:
- Churches
- Libraries
- United Way
- YMCAs/YWCAs
- Community Centers
- Community Colleges
- Local Youth Hostels
- Homeless Shelters
- Hospitals and Clinics
What Kind of Support Do Individual Foster Families and Kinship Caregivers Need?
Individual foster families, whether kinship care (where the adults are caring for a child or children related to them) or other licensed foster families in your neighborhood, need foster care community support too. In our National Foster Care Month blog, we detailed several great ways to discover and support foster children and foster families near you. Here’s a quick recap:
- Be Active – volunteer as a mentor, sitter, respite care provider or transportation provider.
- Be Generous - donate meals, gift cards, etc.
- Be Present – know who is in your neighborhood and what they need.
- Be Aware – watch for “in-the-moment" ways to support the foster kids and families around you.
- Be Accessible – it’s hard to help people who don’t really know and trust you and your family.
- Be Curious – ask around and do your research – there are ways to help around every corner of the street and online.
What Is the Best Way to Support Foster Care Agencies and Other Organizations That Help Kids in Need?
The best place to start providing foster care community support to any agency or organization is to look close to home and find a way that works for you within the time and budget you have available. We don’t speak for every organization, but here are some of the high-impact ways we receive help from our local community:
- Financial Donations to Support Programs
- In Kind Donations
- Foster Family Event Planning and Volunteering
- Become an Alternative Caregiver (aka daytime babysitter) for local Foster Families
- Become a Licensed Respite Foster Parent to support Foster Families by providing part-time overnight Respite Care for Children in Need
- Word of Mouth and Social Media Foster Care Advocacy
- Prayers!
No Such Thing as Too Little or Too Much Support
Everything you do in the interest of foster care community support is just right! The important thing is to start somewhere, and if you’re like many of us, your impact will only grow from there. Thank you for your interest in being the one to make a difference!
