Finding Family: Faith-based Group Seeks Foster Connections

Hundreds of children live in foster care homes in Northwest Arkansas and one local organization is recruiting families to host them.

The Northwest Arkansas chapter of The Call will kick off the new year with an informational meeting for prospective foster parents at 4 p.m. Monday at Shiloh Community Church in Fayetteville. The Call, an Arkansas-based Christian organization, recruits foster families from churches, said, Ann Meythaler, county coordinator for The Call of Benton and Washington counties.

“These kids are worth it,” Meythaler said.

Having foster children is a little like having a sleepover every night, said Mandy Bean, a foster parent. Dyeing Easter eggs and Christmas light tours take on a new shine when it’s a brand new memory for a child who might not have a family tradition.

The children might stay a weekend or a couple months. They might not know who to trust and need a little extra love, but having a young guest in an extra bedroom has taught her biological children a little more about how to love, Bean said.

The Santa letter her 8-year-old daughter wrote this Christmas asked for one gift for all the children at their house, and that he take the rest to children who don’t have mommies and daddies.

There are 87 foster homes open through the Benton and Washington county division of The Call. Meythaler expects double that number of foster families soon as more families complete the certification process. Foster homes are usually full, she said.

There were 817 children in foster care in Benton, Washington, Carroll and Madison counties, from July 1, 2012, to June 30, 2013, said Amy Webb, spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Health. The end-of-June count listed 3,930 children in foster care in Arkansas, down 2 percent from the previous year. About 7,700 children were in foster care at some point during that period.

“It’s not the children’s fault that they’re in foster care,” Webb said.

Neglect, followed by child abuse, are the most common reasons children enter the foster care system. State law defines child abuse as nonaccidental injury. Neglect could encompass truancy, lack of medical care or general failure to care for the child.

The Division of Children and Family Services does not have staff dedicated to recruiting foster families, Webb said. The number of children entering foster care has been decreasing since 2011, but older children, boys, sibling groups, pregnant teens, and children who are sexually aggressive or who have medical conditions make for the most difficult placements.

Experience makes current and former foster parents the best recruiters, Webb said. The state works with The Call, Project Zero and Conway Rotary Club in a combination of projects to raise awareness and help children find forever homes.

“Our priority is to reunite kids with their families,” she said. “We know that it’s important to keep families together.”

People don’t realize how many children locally need help, said Kelly Krout, a foster parent through The Call

“There are tons of kids in your child’s school who are in foster care,” she said.

Seeing a child go back to his or her parents is a good thing, she said.

“The family worked hard to get them back,” Krout said.

Foster parents can see the family grow as parents finish court-required steps, she said.

Watching a child go home to a revived family is sweet and magical, Bean said.

“The hardest part for these kids is not knowing what comes next,” she said.

Adoption might be a next step if a child cannot go home.

Foster care is fluid, but adoption offers a permanent family, said Christie Erwin, co-executive director of Project Zero.

The organization’s goal is to raise awareness about children awaiting adoption, connect children and families and bring hope to children who have waited a long time for a home.

“It’s just knowing you belong to somebody and somebody belongs to you,” Erwin said.

Some teenagers are still looking for a permanent home, wondering where they belong for Christmas, who they will invite to their wedding or wishing they could find a home while classmates graduate and move out, she said.

This spring, the Arkansas Traveling Heart Gallery, organized by Project Zero, will visit Rogers. Volunteer photographers took portraits of children waiting for adoption, which are displayed in the gallery.

“When you start looking in their eyes it really brings it home,” Erwin said.