Sherry Dunn has her own version of the adage “It takes a village to raise a child” when it comes to being a foster parent.
“It takes a village to raise, protect and educate a child,” said Dunn, foster care and adoption supervisor at Lucas County Children Services. “If you’re going to become a foster parent, you’ve got to get your village in order.”
Dunn added that apart from that advice, Children Services provides support to foster parents – a group that she and her team are trying to grow.
“Foster care provides temporary, alternative care for children in a state-certified home while the staff works with the birth family with the goal of reunification,” Children Services explained on its website. “Foster parents provide safety, stability and love to children during a difficult time in their lives.”
Dunn further explained that Children Services works with the birth family, “but sometimes the best thing is for us to remove the kids from the home and place them with foster parents.”
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“We’re always looking for caring, committed adults to open their homes and hearts to children who need temporary care and support,” the agency said.
Dunn said, “There’s always been a need. Now, we have fewer homes and more kids coming in to care.” She said about 20 years ago “we had close to 500 homes. Now, we have a little over 200.” The overall drop in population in Toledo and the aging of previous foster parents who are now retiring contribute to the reduction.
“Right now, we’re looking to find people who are able to be foster parents,” she said.
Dunn and her team make themselves visible in the community in several ways. For instance, they staffed a table in the children’s play area at the recent Toledo Jeep Fest. “We target the Family Zone because that’s where parents are with their kids, and it gives Sherry and her team the opportunity to have conversations to get recruitment efforts going,” said Kevin Milliken, Children Services’ public information officer.
Milliken added that Dunn’s team attends other festivals, parades, and conducts Zoom meetings.
“There are a number of ways to interact,” he said, especially through a good old-fashioned call. “Some people prefer to have a phone conversation with Sherry and her team,” he said.
“You don’t have to be a parent to be a foster care giver,” Milliken said. “You can be single, or an empty-nest couple. There are lots of scenarios in which people can be great foster parents.”
For special-needs children, there is a call for foster parents with experience in mental health, developmental disabilities, special education and law enforcement, Children Services said.
New foster parents go through training in sessions online and in the Children Services’ offices, at 301 Adams Street in Toledo.
Milliken said the number of foster children cared for fluctuates monthly, but ranges from 800 to 1,000. The age is from birth to 18 years old, with the biggest group – 51 percent – age five and younger.
Children Services first tries to place children with a relative or close family friend – kinship care. “We’re hoping that those kin are reunified,” Dunn said, “and that the kinship foster parents will become foster parents for us and foster other children.”
Dunn’s message to the Toledo community is simple and direct: “I tell people that these are our children, Lucas County’s children. We need to do this for our children.”
For more details, visit https://lucaskids.net/foster-care/ or call 419-213-3336.
