Clark County calls need for foster parents a ‘crisis situation’
LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - The Clark County Department of Family Services shared an update about their latest recruiting efforts to get more foster kids into homes.
“We are still at a pretty big need,” said Jill Marano, Director of DFS. “A crisis situation.”
The department said it doesn’t have enough foster homes to house all the kids in need.
“There are 100 children in Child Haven that are waiting for a foster home,” said Marano. “We estimate we need about 300 homes, though, to adequately meet the need.”
DFS said it has changed its recruiting efforts by taking a more targeted approach, focusing on certain populations and age groups where they see the biggest need. They are looking for 74 more homes for children up to age six, 29 more homes for sibling groups, and 21 more homes for teenagers.
“We have developed a plan for each of our recruiters where they are targeting businesses and organizations that provide support to the zero-to-six population, so we are going to places like libraries and seeing if we can offer support there,” said Marano.
DFS is partnering with businesses and organizations through a program called Proud Partners of Foster Care.
“That is for any business or organization that decides they want to help us to recruit or retain foster parents,” Marano explained. “So that could be anything, (such as) providing our materials to your customers or employees.”
DFS now also has fingerprinting on-site at its information sessions to speed up the process. Prospective foster parents previously had to make an additional appointment.
“Before, you would have to go home, call and make an appointment and come back in and get your fingerprint done,” Marano said.
Marano said DFS has had a rise of about 15 available foster homes over the past six months—a total increase that they haven’t seen in over five years. By the end of 2023, they are hoping to make that a total increase of 40 available foster homes for children that need them.
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