As of 2022, 368,500 children were in foster care. Unfortunately, this marked a six percent decline from 2021. This decline in Foster participation has also hit the Castle Country Area. To help solve this problem, Utah Foster Care is hosting a ‘Build Your Village’ event on Monday, Nov. 4, to help raise awareness for foster care. To discuss the event and its importance, Kobi Prettyman sat down with Castle Country Radio to discuss all things foster care.
Starting off, Prettyman explained why this event is needed,” the Build Your Village event started out as an event for people that are already in the process who’ve thought about becoming foster parents and just to help introduce them to the people they’ll be working with, let them know of all the supports that foster parents have.” Prettyman continued,” We’ve expanded it to the public because our need for foster families in this area is so great that we thought this would be a fantastic way for them to come and answer questions that they might have and to also learn about all the things that are available to help them once they are foster families.”
In addition to Utah Foster Care, the Division of Family and Child Services will have representatives at the event. “We have people from the DCFS coming as well to talk about how placement works. And then we go over a variety of different supports that happen once you have children placed with you.”
Speaking on the support systems in place for foster families, Prettyman stated,” We try to create a community because fostering is different from just parenting in that it has a lot of the same aspects, but there are other things that can complicate it. You’re working with the court system, you’re working with government agencies and things like that. And so being able to connect with other people who have worked with those same groups of people is very helpful for foster families. So we have support groups where they can come together, and that’s why we call it ‘Build Your Village’. We’re building a village around them to support them and help them through this.”
Prettyman also walked us through one of the most common fears felt by foster parents, and how Utah Foster Care supports families through,” One of the biggest fears that we hear is that people are afraid of loving a child, getting attached, and then letting them go home. So we recognize that we need to support families through that process, and so we have a whole program that does that for foster families.”
Prettyman then delved into the massive need for more foster families within our area,” So in the last month or so, we’ve had over 20 children come into care, and we haven’t had a lot of families coming forward and taking the classes and getting licensed. So we keep having the children come in, but we’re not replenishing our foster parent pool.”
In closing, Prettyman shared,” If you’ve been thinking about foster care or curious about it at all, at any point in time, please come. And if you can’t attend this event, you’re always welcome to look online at utahfostercare.org”
Utah Foster Care’s ‘Build Your Village’ event will be held on Monday, Nov. 4. From 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at 475 W Price River Dr., in Price. To register for this event, you can sign up on its Eventbrite page here. To stay up to date with future Utah Foster Care events, you can follow the organization on Facebook or visit utahfostercare.org.