LYNCHBURG, Va. – According to the Department of Social Services, there are nearly half a million kids in foster care in the United States.
The pandemic is leading to more kids in need with less help to turn to in Central Virginia. More than 5,000 foster children live in Virginia. About a third of those kids are waiting for adoptive families.
“I love working with children,” Heather Schrader says.
That’s how Schrader spends her days, working at Braley & Thompson to find homes for kids for the last seven years.
“They need people who care about them and want to help them transition successfully into a foster home,” Schrader says. “It’s about finding people who really love and care about them.”
Something Schrader and others say has been more difficult lately.
“We constantly are having a shift where we need more parents,” Graycen Hurt says.
Hurt works at HumanKind in Lynchburg. She says they have about 10-15 kids that come into care each month.
“By the time they are referring to us, they’ve already been removed from their homes,” Hurt says. “The longer they don’t have a place to stay, they’re just sitting at the DSS office and that’s very hard for a child to process.”
Hurt and Schrader say when the pandemic eased up, they saw a wave of kids coming in.
“Since kids were at home, things weren’t being reported, things weren’t being seen,” Schrader says. “I think we’re starting to see the kids who may have fell through the cracks.”
Anyone 18 and older can foster a child. It’s about a two-three month process. They also offer training for families who decide to open their homes.
HumanKind and Braley & Thompson have locations across Virginia.
HumanKind has locations in Lynchburg, Danville, Bedford, NOVA, Suffolk and Richmond. Anyone interested in becoming a foster parent can call Hurt at 434-316-3261.