Representatives from the Kentucky Foster Adoptive Caregiver Exchange System, the official name of the foster care system in the commonwealth, have been making their rounds to cities throughout Northern Kentucky in an effort to get the word out about the need for help.
Boone, Kenton and Campbell Counties are part of the system’s Northern Bluegrass region, which includes the 12 northernmost counties in the state. There were 1,220 kids in the system as of Oct. 1, according to Kristina Niergarth, social service clinician with Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services.
Niegarth and others have already spoken before local governments and with businesses around the region, mostly recently before the Covington Board of Commissioners on Oct. 28. The system’s Kenton County office is actually in Latonia.
“We have a lot of kids who are unfortunately sleeping in our offices because we don’t have placement,” said Jenni Wiehe, who supervises recruitment within the system.
Covington Mayor Ron Washington is actually a former foster child.
“There’s a big need in our community for this,” Washington told Niegarth and Wiehe at the Oct. 28 commission meeting. “My mom was a foster mother, and we had over a dozen children that passed through our house at one time or the other, and my sister’s a foster mother. So, it means a lot to me, and you guys are doing good work.”
There were 432 kids in the system in Kenton County as of Oct. 1. Split out by age groups, there were 144 between the ages of zero and five, 87 between the ages of six and 11, and 201 between the ages of 12 and 21.
Foster homes, meanwhile, are broken down between state-certified homes and privately managed agencies. As of Oct. 1, there were 267 cabinet homes and 252 privately managed agencies in the Northern Bluegrass region, including 74 and 67, respectively, in Kenton County.
With those numbers, Niergarth said, “we’re only meeting 85% of the need.”
Placing kids with family members or trusted family friends tends to be easier, both logistically and for the kids themselves, than placing them in a strange home. Foster parents must go through the required training to get certified. Once they’re certified, foster caregivers become eligible for a state stipend to help defray the cost of caring for the kids.
Foster caregivers can adopt through the system, as well. When that occurs, the family continues to receive the stipend until the child turns 18. The child adopted through the system also gets free in-state tuition at any Kentucky public college or university.
There are also people called respite providers. Respite providers watch kids for a short time, such as over the weekend, to give the full-time foster caregivers a break.
Even if you aren’t ready to become a full-on foster parent, said Niegarth, there are other ways to help.
“A lot of families might just start out with respite…,” Niergarth said. “There’s an app called Foster Friendly. Businesses can get signed up on that to offer a discount to foster families… You can donate items to local foster care closets: you know, baby items, clothing, supplies and basically just helping spread the word is one of the biggest things.”
You can learn more about the Kentucky Foster Adoptive Caregiver Exchange System, including how to become a foster caregiver or how to adopt, at kyfaces.ky.gov.