The Utah Foster Care program is in need of foster parents in the area and are looking for families that are willing to open up their homes to children in need. Castle Country Radio was able to sit down with Area Representative, Kobi Prettyman and longtime foster parent Layne Miller to speak about the program.
“So my responsibilities are to help find families that are willing to take children in their homes and then to help support them once they are involved in the program and working with the children. We do have a trainer that trains and provides great training for families so they know what to expect and when kids have experienced some trauma there’s some things that we’ve learned about ways to help them and that might be different than people’s own children and so we want to make sure they are prepared,” said Prettyman. New families brought in to the program are able to meet with long-time foster parents to get insight of their experiences.
Layne Miller and his wife have been long time foster parents to teen boys because they felt there was a need to accommodate teen boys in our area. “You know we tell the boys when they come into our home, we want to make you the best, whatever their name is, that you can be. We’re only a small piece of helping boys improve and be better. Their friends play a part, their biological family members play a part, their relatives play a part, the community plays a part in that. We’re just a small piece but that’s what we want to do. Yea, we want to make them the best person that they can be. So when they leave our house, they are successful,” explained Miller. Being foster parents for the last 25 years has been a rewarding experience for the Millers. The Millers are also part of a mentor program within the organization where they help other foster families through the process of becoming and being good foster parents.
If you have any questions about the Foster Care Program, give Prettyman a call. “They can call my office and that number is 636-0210 or they can always look on our website at https://utahfostercare.org/ On the website there lots of information if they have general questions about what the requirements are and what they need to have to qualify, all that stuff is on our website. But I’m also happy to answer those questions and if they have more specific questions about something specific to their family, if they think that this particular thing would work with foster care, they can always call me and I’m happy to answer any of those questions,” stated Prettyman.
To learn more about the Utah Foster Care Program visit their website or Facebook page.