COUNSELING CENTER SEEKS FOSTER HOMES

Tiffany Parker hopes the caring spirit of the Christmas season will carry over in recruitment of foster parents for troubled youth.

"We are trying to do a new recruitment campaign for our Foster Family Treatment Program," said Parker, the program's local coordinator.

The state program is administered locally through a contract with the Community Counseling Center.

Recruitment efforts began last February, but it took some time to find parents who would work with troubled youth, said Parker.

"We are just finishing training of our first two families." And more are needed, Parker said.

"We are looking for at least a year's commitment from families."

In addition, respite homes are needed to provide some overnight and weekend care of the children, to give foster parents a little rest from their duties, she said.

"Foster families get 10 days a year respite."

The first placement of children with the foster families probably will occur after the first of the year, she added.

Typically, she said, only one child at a time will be placed with a foster family.

That's because the foster families will be dealing with troubled youngsters. "They have emotional and behavioral problems. Almost all of them have been abused," said Parker.

Such children, she said, can be withdrawn at times, and aggressive at other times.

The program is designed to serve troubled youth, both male and female, ages 6 to 18. Plans call for placement of some of the children who currently reside at the Cottonwood Treatment Center.

"I think the majority of what I've seen for placement is in the teenage range, 13 to 17," said Parker.

Without a foster treatment program, many of the youth would have no choice but to remain at the treatment center. "A lot of the kids are just stuck there," she said.

The families receive special training, and $604 a month. In addition, $50 a month is allocated to the youngster for personal spending.

"We train them (foster parents) in what we think they need to know," said Parker. "We don't leave them high and dry."

The training generally takes eight hours a week for six weeks.

Program officials will check on the family and child on a weekly basis, and there's a 24-hour emergency service available to assist the foster families when necessary.

Foster families also have a lot of input in the program. "We allow them to specify the sex of the child and the age range of the child they would like to have," said Parker.

"We ask them a lot of questions so that we try to make a good match between the child and the parent."

The children and the parents have at least two meetings where they get to visit with each other prior to any placement being made.

A particular placement will occur only if it's agreeable to both the parents and the child.

Since all of the youth involved in the program are of school age, it's not a problem to have a foster family where both parents work, said Parker.

"We can arrange for after-school programs and things like that if that is what's needed."

Parker said the foster parents are viewed as professionals. "That's really the role we want them to have. They are providing the treatment and we are supporting them in doing that treatment.

"We teach them (the foster parents) how to change and shape behavior, how to manage the behavior," she explained.

"We want these kids to be successful members of society," said Parker. "We think it is better for a child to grow up in a family rather than in a residential center."