Clark County encouraging more foster kinships to become licensed

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - A push is underway in Clark County to get more kinship foster families licensed to keep kids out of Child Haven.

A kinship foster parent is one related to a child whose parents are unable to care for them.

“My daughter has mental health issues and couldn’t take care of the baby,” said foster kinship parent Stacey Galka.

Galka raised her granddaughter starting when the child was just 16 months.

“I am not a baby person, so I was terrified,” said Galka. “I did not want to do the baby scene again, but I did and I managed and she is eight years old now.”

Galka is now licensed as a foster kinship, which allows her to have the support and resources to care for her granddaughter.

“I said I couldn’t do it financially and was going to have a hard time and I didn’t want to struggle anymore, and they encouraged me to turn to foster kinship to get the licensing done to get the support I needed,” said Galka.

“A lot of times, without support, families feel like I am not the right person for this child, and I can’t do this anymore, so the child might end up back in the Child Haven campus,” said Ali Caliendo, Executive Director of foster kinship.

Clark County stated that 90% percent of all kids who can’t live with their parents stay with their families. In Nevada, there are 30,000 children in kinship care. 42% of the time, kids who enter the foster care system get to stay with family. If the kinship foster parents aren’t licensed, they won’t receive the same support, which can put the child at risk.

“They might be told this is temporary, because of course foster care is temporary, so they might be thinking, ‘Oh just a few weeks, I can do it,’ but as a few weeks might be a few months, into six months, then that help is really needed,” said Caliendo.

“For her to get into classes and do different activities, picture day is coming up and I have to have money for that,” said Galka.

The training to become licensed foster kinship is five weeks and can be done online or in person.

“It sounds like a lot in the beginning, but you make friends along the way,” said Galka. “People that are in your class, you find out you aren’t the only one going through this.”

To find out more information on becoming a certified foster kinship or a foster parent in general, click HERE.

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