Palm Beach County struggles to find foster homes

Palm Beach County struggles to find foster homes

By Kathleen Chapman

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

There is no room left at the inn.

For the past several months, Palm Beach County's foster care agency
has struggled to find homes for rising numbers of children
taken from their biological families. Foster homes are full, and some
of the youngest victims of abuse or neglect are being sent to
shelters as far away as Orlando.

Social workers don't like to leave children too long in emergency
shelters where shift workers have to stand in for real families. Many
have seen the toddlers who call strangers "Mommy" or wrap themselves
around any visitor who pays attention to them sobbing
when they are peeled away.

Out-of-county shelters can be even harder on children because they are
farther away from their parents and everything they know.

But even some of the smallest have no other place to go.

Those waiting for homes this month included several healthy babies, a
set of 1-year-old triplets and three sisters, ages 2, 5 and 7. On
one day, 29 local children under age 5 were living in shelters outside
the county.

Palm Beach County's foster care agency, Child and Family Connections,
recruited more than 100 homes in recent years, but many
have chosen to adopt their foster children and no longer have space
for more. The county has 236 foster homes, up from 160 when
the agency took over recruitment from the Department of Children and
Families in 2003.

But it is not enough to meet the need.

Foster mother Linda Coffin of Hypoluxo keeps recruitment brochures in
the trunk of her car just in case she meets anyone who might
think about taking in a child.

Coffin often joins a group of several foster mothers at the Boynton
Beach Mall or other play areas. She understands that some
people want to adopt from overseas. But it is amazing, she said, how
many children in the United States also need homes.

On one outing this month, Coffin brought her latest addition to the
family, a baby with huge brown eyes and porcelain skin. For fun,
Coffin dressed her up in a pink headband and brown cowgirl boots.

Another member of the moms' group, Judy Wallace, loves "the little
peanut ones." She gets most babies straight from the intensive
care unit, many taken from their parents because they tested positive
for drugs at birth.

Many are no bigger than 4 pounds, so tiny and peaceful that some
strangers stop to ask whether they are real. Wallace laughs about
that and wonders: Do I look like the sort of woman who would carry a
doll?

Barbara McAlister, who specializes in children with medical problems,
admits she has a hard time saying no when the foster care
agency calls to ask whether she has room for one more. She can't stand
the idea of a child without a family.

"You want to take them all home," McAlister said.

The biggest fear most people have about fostering is that they will
fall in love with a child who will one day be taken away, the
mothers agree. That's true, Wallace said. It can break your heart
completely.

But ultimately, the mothers said, all children move on — go to
college, move away, stop needing you. It is satisfying to see them do
well, even from a distance.

The moms send children on their way with scrapbooks or albums of
photos so they will know what they looked like when they were
small. Coffin wears a bracelet with a string of pictures, all former
foster children who have been adopted or gone back home to birth
parents who are doing better. She keeps up with all of them, becoming
another member of their extended families.

Maureen Maronto, who heads recruitment for Child and Family
Connections, said her agency needs all kinds of families — men,
women, singles, couples, young families, empty nesters or retirees.
The state pays most costs, including day care, health insurance
and a monthly stipend.

"Ideally, we don't want children in shelters. They are better off in
homes," Maronto said.

Coffin said she has seen even the youngest children wishing for a
family.

She had one 2-year-old who was playing with a girl her age when the
girl's father came over. The little girl said "Daddy!" as he
scooped her into his arms.

A few minutes later, a stranger walked by. Coffin's 2-year-old foster
child ran to the man, calling out "Daddy!"

The little girl wanted a father of her own.

"They just need to have somebody to love them, somebody to care about
them," Coffin said. "Somebody to call Daddy."
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localne...ster_0627.html

Defend your civil liberties! Get information at http://www.aclu.org, become a member at http://www.aclu.org/join and get active at http://www.aclu.org/action.
We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.