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PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, JUNE 29, 2018 FOSTER, continued from Page A1 it,” said Slippy. “It’s a lot for them to manage and they’re carrying a really heavy burden.” The system has not always lacked so many foster homes. In the early 2000s, when Oregon was suffering from a metham- phetamine epidemic, thousands of foster children entered the system all at once. For several years, over 1,100 children were in care on a monthly basis in Marion County. DHS orches- trated a huge push for foster families, and the community came through. But after that push, many of those foster par- ents adopted their foster chil- dren, and subsequently stopped opening up their homes to new kids. The number of children in care has lowered considerably since then; yearly averages show around 650 children in care. But the system is struggling to keep up. As Erma Brundidge, a Child Welfare foster parent certifi er said, “Our number of foster kids isn’t as high, but we do have fewer foster homes and those fewer children in care are tougher.” Brundidge has held differ- ent roles within DHS Child Welfare for almost 20 years, and she’s seen a shift in the kids ar- riving in care. Behavioral prob- lems among children in foster care have intensifi ed in recent years. While Brundidge isn’t sure of the cause, they know that the kids who come into care “require more time and energy and skill level” from fos- ter families, Brundidge said. Foster families can rise to the occasion of dealing with diffi cult behavioral problems, but they must have the “desire to learn those skills and can invest some time upfront,” she said. This is why all foster parents, regardless of whether they’re related to the child, must com- plete foster parent certifi cation training. For initial certifi cation, foster parents must attend a set of eight, three-hour sessions, which cover everything from working with a child’s biologi- cal family to child development to sexual abuse and trauma and how those circumstances im- pact a child’s behavior. On top of these classes, DHS requires an additional six hours of train- ings to become certifi ed. These additional trainings can take the form of DHS- offered classes in topics like extreme behavioral issues and how to deal with the grief of saying goodbye to a child who’s been in the home for a long time, but training hours can also come from attending counseling sessions with a fos- ter child or reading books spe- cifi c to the child’s case; these details can be worked out with one’s certifi ers. After initial certifi cation, foster parents are asked to complete 30 hours of training every two years for re- certifi cation. Aside from formal trainings, Slippy and Brundidge are ded- icated to receiving foster par- ents in their offi ce and work- ing through issues together. This is part of DHS’s effort to change the culture within the agency after the recent state audit of the foster care system. “Our new DHS director and Child Welfare director are helping the culture of our agency to shift, in that this is a service agency and when you serve people you serve each other and serve in a bigger pic- ture,” Slippy said. For more on DHS’s response to the recent audit, see side bar. What’s most important for foster parents, Brundidge and Slippy emphasized, is to under- stand the limits of their knowl- edge: fostering a child who’s been abused and traumatized won’t be the same as raising one’s own biological child. The ideal foster parent, Brundidge said, is “someone who doesn’t think they have all the answers and would approach it just like a brand-new parent approach- es parenting.” Just like a new parent, fos- ter parents need support from those around them. Slippy and Brundidge emphasize the role of the community in creat- ing successful foster homes. There aren’t enough foster parents but there also isn’t enough support for current foster parents. There’s a role for those in the community to play, whether that’s in babysit- ting or transportation of the child when the foster parents to attend an appointment or in moral support when a fos- ter parent is struggling to cope with a new child. “If [community members] can’t have the child in their home, they could help sup- port a family by bringing in a dinner or any of those simple things,” Brundidge said. In addition, recasting the role of the foster parent as a Senior community hosts country cousins A DHS changing in response to state audit At a recent Foster Care Advisory Board meeting in Salem, Brooke Hall, a project manager in Child Welfare Field Services, shared some of the goals of the Oregon Department of Human Services in re- sponding to the recent au- dit of the foster care system by the Secretary of State’s offi ce. While the audit rec- ommendations were exten- sive and far reaching, DHS chose 10 recommendations to prioritize and launch immediate projects on. Some of these projects include engaging the com- munity more, which has resulted in a series of listen- ing tours around the state, where key players in DHS Child Welfare organize time to speak with groups of foster parents, foster kids, and community stakehold- ers and accept feedback about what’s working and what’s not. Other projects include creating a central- ized statewide system for calls about child welfare and foster care, recruiting new caseworkers and creat- ing surveys to understand when and why caseworkers burn out, and dealing with backlogged foster home ap- plications by sending spe- cialized staff to help process applications in areas where applications are particularly bottlenecked. A new program called Positive Human Develop- ment is being implement- ed to improve the culture within DHS. The Positive Human Development proj- ect takes the form of train- ings for DHS workers in leadership roles and seeks to create better relationships between DHS employees. All these projects are in progress and are in various states of implementation. The next Foster Care Advisory Board meeting is September 20 and is run by the Foster Care Ombuds- man Darin Mancuso. For more information, email Mancuso at fco.info@state. or.us B Willamette Lutheran Re- tirement Community brought in farm animals, fair games and even a calliope player for a country fair Friday, June 22. A: Raeann McDonald fullfi lls a longtime dream of Richard Thomas by giving him an eye Simple Cremation $875 Inexpensive Burial and Funeral Options Pre-Planning Available On-Site Crematory 4365 RIVER RD N, KEIZER 503.393.7037 Se habla español C in the back of his head. B: Emelia Lane feeds a goat. C: Mary Ann Cotton tries her hand at a ring toss. TRACKS: ‘We need to hammer out specifi cs’ (Continued from Page A1) We are Everything Except Overpriced community service is impor- tant. Community members should acknowledge how much dedication it takes to be a good foster parent. “I honestly believe if we can have a mentality of thankful- ness and acknowledgement, we could go far beyond reaching out and getting foster parents,” Brundidge said. Willamette Valley Council of Governments, the committee settled on one project with a smaller price tag and one that will require a more substantial investment. Sidewalk improvements to Delight Street Northeast around Cummings Elementary School was deemed to be the most pressing concern with sidewalk access enhancements to the area around Kennedy Elementary School taking the No. 2 spot with a higher price tag. “We need to hammer out specifi c streets and whether we want sidewalks on one side or both,” said David Dempster, a committee member. Subgroups of the committee planned walkthroughs of each area last week to discuss specif- ics. The decision appeared to put to rest a months-long con- versation regarding which of the two projects would get the full support of the committee. However, it was made easier this time around with input from Jaffe, who had the latest draft rules for the competitive fund- ing process on-hand. The rule- making committee is favoring projects within a mile of Title 1, K-8 schools. Cummings and Kennedy are both designated as Title 1, which denotes schools with high percentages of chil- dren from low-income families. Jaffe also encouraged mem- bers of the committee and someone from city staff to at- tend a transportation workshop in Salem as part of their prepa- ration for submitting projects. One question still outstand- ing where money to match the state grants will come from. Depending on the fi nal rules, Keizer might be able to cite an upcoming investment from the Salem-Keizer School District into the Cummings area as matching money. The recently-approved school bond measure includes a sidewalk build-out to the edges of the Cummings’ campus and may qualify as a matching in- vestment without the city dip- ping into its own reserves. After determining the spe- cifi cs for each project, the com- mittee will need approval from the city council to move for- ward. 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