MONTGOMERY COUNTY — Montgomery County Children Services is looking to recruit more people to be foster parents because there are not enough people available these days.
>>PHOTOS: Montgomery County Children Services is recruiting to respond to foster parent shortage
According to the most recent statistics, there are roughly 700 children in the county in foster care, Jennie Cole, children services deputy assistant director, told News Center 7′s Kayla McDermott on Friday.
Hearing that number is painful to Katie Jensen.
She and her husband have fostered six children in six years.
“We both think we were called to foster,” Jensen told McDermott. “I don’t know, maybe God put it on our heart.”
Their only child, Connor, is one of the children they took in as a foster parent - and she will never forget the days she told him he was adopted.
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“It was just so exciting and he oh my gosh he was so excited,” she recalled.
Seeing the children grow under her care is incredibly rewarding, she said, noting that if someone has the means to foster, they should definitely consider doing so.
“He was four and he didn’t know colors or counting or ABCs or anything,” she remembers. “You feel like you’re really making a difference and you are really making a difference in these kids’ lives.”
Cole said having more people such as Jensen would be a huge help to children’s services, which counts 180 licensed foster families in the county.
“We would love to foster another 100 families,” she said. Licensed caretakers need to complete 24 hours of training, be at least 18, and live in a house or apartment.
A foster care recruitment event at Haines Children’s Center, 3304 N. Main St., is planned for July 11.
Go to mcohio.org, hover your mouse over “Most Popular” from the list in the blue section on the agency’s lead page, and click on “Children Services” for more.
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