GILES COUNTY, Va. – Lisa White was all smiles on Friday watching her foster child ride horses at Healing Strides of Virginia.
White is one of six approved foster families in Giles County.
“My husband and I are both in education. So, we’re both teachers” said White. “We see on a daily basis the need that kids just have to be loved.”
But with 35 foster kids in the system, Katie Poff, a family services specialist from Giles County Department of Social Services, said they’re in crisis.
“We need foster homes,” said Poff.
Kids have to be sent to other parts of the state, away from their biological families, friends, schools and support services.
“I have a child placed in the Richmond area. There are children in Amherst, children in Rocky Mount. We have children all over the state of Virginia,” said Poff. “That’s just where a home was available at the time they entered foster care. And we have to have somewhere for them to go.”
In Virginia, there are more than 5,200 kids in foster care.
Jamie Snead, the vice president of marketing and development for DePaul Community Resources, said that the lack of foster families is a statewide and nationwide problem.
“There are far more children in the foster care system than there are homes to accommodate those children. And it is a Giles County problem. It is a problem for all of our departments of social services that we work with,” said Snead.
Entering the foster system can be traumatic, especially if children are sent far away from everything and everyone they know.
“That’s a lot going on in a small child’s brain. And as we know, things that impact us as children can impact us later into adulthood, as teenagers, and things like that,” said Poff.
Healing Strides offers equine therapy and parenting coaching to foster families who need a little extra support.
White said being a foster parent doesn’t take much, you just need to foster love.
“If you love kids and you have a heart to love others,” said White. “It is a huge need in our area.”
To learn more about becoming a foster home, contact DePaul Community Resources, Giles County Department of Social Services or your local department of social services.