KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — There are thousands of kids in foster care here in Tennessee and not nearly enough homes for them to go to.
One organization is working to recruit more potential foster parents. It's starting a series of classes this month to help make that process easier.
Tennessee Childhelp says it gets between 75 to 100 foster care referrals every month and can only place about six to eight of those kids.
“For us, it really felt like a calling,” foster parent Pamela explained. “It was one of the best decisions we made, I think.”
Lending a helping hand to children in need wasn't in Pamela's plans, but three years ago, she and her husband decided to try out foster parenting.
Since their fostering journey began, Pamela said she came across the organization Childhelp Tennessee.
“A lot of the children in foster care have really high needs and need a lot of extra care and support and going through an agency just gives foster parents an extra layer of support to help those kids work through those things,” Pamela explained. “So it has really helped us make foster care feel more manageable to have that.”
The organization offers therapeutic foster care, which works with the birth parents and children to hopefully reunite the two. It also offers adoption programs and relative caregiver programs.
“My goal now is to train foster parents, to train staff, to help train therapists to just to really be able to make a difference with kids and families,” Director of Foster Care for Tennessee Childhelp Mark Akers explained. “There's always more children in Tennessee who need foster homes than there are foster parents available.”
In Tennessee, there are more than 9,000 children in foster care, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.
“That number has been the same for quite a while,” Akers said. “So we need more families, we need more individuals, more couples to hear the call and to answer the call to help these kids and families heal.”
Cindy Whittaker answered that call five years ago. “I had just finished raising my four bio boys and we moved here to Tennessee,” she remembered. “And one day I came home from work and realized the house is so empty.”
She answered the call to help, saying the experience had been “amazing.”
“Absolutely amazing,” Whittaker reiterated, emotion bringing tears to her eyes. “To hearing them for the first time calling your mom…is probably one of the greatest things because then they feel that connection with you.”
A connection so strong that Whittaker has adopted three of the 11 children she’s taken in as a foster parent.
“If we had not taken that first step, I would not have my daughters,” Whittaker smiled.
That first step is what Akers wants others to take, and it’s the motivation behind his effort to recruit foster parents.
“If we could reunite these families and heal these families and get these kids home again and pour into the families to help them be great parents, imagine what that would do for our area?” Akers proposed. “If you have healthier families, safer kids, kids being supervised well, going to school every day like they should be, getting the medical care that they need to be getting. There's just so many ways that would make a difference for these kids to keep them home in a healthy situation and to make these families healthier and whole again. That's what foster care is all about.”
Childhelp will begin a new series of those classes later this month. They last between four and six weeks and are required by the state.
“You don't have to have anything huge,” Whittaker said. “You don't have to have a lot of anything. These kids come from like nothing. Just give them a bed and some love and food and just nurture them and be mom, be dad, be the person that they need to connect with.”
For those who are interested in serving children but aren’t looking to become foster parents, Childhelp Tennessee also offers respite work.
“If a foster family has an emergency call, they have to go to town or just the parents need a break, they need families to step up for even a weekend or a few days during the week that can take children,” Whittaker explained. “Sometimes if you don't feel like you can foster children, sometimes there's other ways you can actually be a part of that foster child's life to show them that there's people who do care.”
If you're looking to get involved, you can find more information on Childhelp’s website here.