Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 20
Foster parenting
could be your greatest role
I
20
Georgia Magazine
Top left: This child is one of the 2,500 to 3,000 children
who are adopted out of Georgia's foster care system each
year, says Susan Lister, CEO of Giving Children a Chance
of Georgia (GCAC). Top right: Foster parents know that
helping children is the biggest impact one can make on
the world. Above: "A lazy day on the river allows children
to feel a sense of adventure while building relationships
with other children," Lister says.
April 2020
20-23_Foster_Parenting_B_0420.indd 20
3/11/20 1:00 PM
COURTESY VICKI HELLUMS
RACHEL JOHNSTON
GCAC OF GEORGIA
GCAC OF GEORGIA
t's 9 p.m. when the phone rings. If you
are a foster parent and you see it's a
caseworker calling, you know what
that means: You will be asked if you can
open your home and your heart to a child
who needs a safe place to stay.
If you can picture yourself in this
situation, foster parenting might be a good
choice for you. In Georgia, the need for
foster parents is great, with only about
5,000 foster homes serving as safe havens
for the 13,000 to 14,000 children currently
in foster care.
"We are always looking to increase the
number of foster families that we have because when children are entering care we
want to be able to place them in their community so they're not removed from every
connection that they have in their life," says
Garrett Pierce, regional administrator for
the Region 1 Caregiver Recruitment and
Retention Unit for the Georgia Division of
Family and Children Services (DFCS).
"The state has a recruitment plan
to increase the number of foster home
resources to 7,688 by July 2020," he says.
"This number combines DFCS foster
homes and private agency foster homes."
These private agency foster homes, also called child-placing agencies (CPAs), work with foster parents to secure the services and resources
needed for children who are in the system, while providing the parents
with support and training.
"It's a partnership," says Susan Lister, CEO of Giving Children a Chance
of Georgia (GCAC), a child-placing agency in Alpharetta. "DFCS doesn't
have enough foster homes to meet the needs of all the children in the state
of Georgia. And so a private agency recruits and trains foster parents. Then
if DFCS requires assistance in meeting the needs of a child, they would
contact a private agency to help facilitate that."
The partnership between DFCS and child-placing agencies has proven
beneficial.
"We rely very heavily on our private agency partners," Pierce says.
"We organize joint group events with these agencies, and we also organize
joint training so that as a collaborative team we can all serve all of our foster homes, which helps with the overflow and keeping kids in their
communities."
GCAC OF GEORGIA
By Victoria Scharf DeCastro
Georgia Magazine - April 2020
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Georgia Magazine - April 2020
Contents
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - Intro
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - Cover1
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - Cover2
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - Contents
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 4
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 5
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 6
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 7
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 8
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 9
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 10
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 11
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 12
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 13
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 14
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 15
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 16
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 17
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 18
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 19
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 20
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 21
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 22
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 23
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 24
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 25
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 26
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 27
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 28
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 29
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 30
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 31
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 32
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 33
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 34
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 35
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 36
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 37
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 38
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 39
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 40
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 41
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 42
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 43
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 44
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 45
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - 46
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - Cover3
Georgia Magazine - April 2020 - Cover4
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