Pam Price was very involved in high school activities – from cheerleading to basketball, she kept herself busy in her teenage years. After a school event one night, she remembers seeing a crowd of parents, waiting to drive their sons and daughters home. It was a mundane moment, but it had special significance for Pam, who grew up in a single-parent home. With her parent at work, Pam walked home alone in the dark. It was then that Pam first thought about becoming a foster parent.
As part of National Runaway Prevention Month, this story features Justin Springer, a Cornerstones of Care Response Team Coordinator, and his efforts to reduce child runaways in Missouri.
On a cruise in 2020, Joshua and Matt discussed what type of family they wanted. Their conversation included fostering, adopting, or having children through a surrogate. The couple, married in 2018, knew they wanted a family; they just weren't sure what form it would take. They made their decision in 2020 when a friend, who is a foster care case manager, mentioned a teenager who identified as LGBTQ+ and had asked to be placed with a same-gender couple. Joshua and Matt were motivated to become foster parents, even though they wouldn't be licensed in time to foster the teen who made the request.
November is National Adoption Month, and the need to find caring homes for teens is critical, especially among older children. In 2020, 3,638 children over the age of nine were in Kansas foster care. In Missouri, that number was 8,825. Over the years, we've had foster parents who were convinced they only wanted to work with "the littles" find fostering teens is a rewarding experience. To help interested foster parents consider fostering teens, let's bust a few myths.
As summer break rolls to a close, students all over the country are gearing up for a new school year. But for youth in foster care, this can be an incredibly different experience. Some youth are going back to their same school for the first time living in a different home. Others have had to switch to a different school, maybe in a new town, where they know no one and may be afraid to be identified as someone in foster care. We asked Angie McKim, who has two school-aged youth in foster care, to give us four tips for foster parents.
