ELKO, NV – Children want to stay home and stay in their communities, where they’re usually happiest. And by recruiting foster parents in Elko, Nevada Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) aims to ensure that children who need to be in foster care can at least stay someplace familiar.
When parents or caregivers are in crisis, children’s needs for safety and protection may go unmet. And if relatives cannot be located for a child who needs out-of-home placement services, DCFS arranges foster care placement. Removing children from their homes comes only as a last resort.
Keeping children in communities they recognize, where they have classmates, friends and other relatives, may help those children weather some of the upheaval of being in foster care. But if caring foster homes aren’t in the area where children have lived, those children must be placed in outlying communities.
“Foster families provide a family life experience for a child removed from their own home. They help children heal and feel supported,” said Lori Nichols, a licensed social worker and recruiter at the Nevada Division of Child and Family Services. “We have over 400 children in rural Nevada foster care and it’s important for these children to remain in their community and not have to be moved to a foster home outside of their county.”
Child and Family Services uses the P.R.I.D.E. (Parent Resource for Information, Development and Education) curriculum to prepare prospective foster caregivers to address the unique challenges they may face.
The goal is always to reunite children with their birth parents or find a permanent, safe long-term living environment, such as an adoptive home.
DCFS will host several training sessions in 2020 to let prospective foster parents, who can be single, married or in a domestic partnership, stay-at-home or working, learn more and ask questions.
ELKO
9 a.m. – 6 p.m. Feb. 28 – March 1, 2020, The Terrace at Ruby View, Senior & Active Lifestyle Center, 1795 Ruby View Drive, Elko, NV 89801.
Prospective foster parents will undergo a five-step licensing process that includes:
1. Foster/adoptive parent inquiry: A short telephone interview to collect basic information about the desire for a license
2. Application: Prospective foster parents will be mailed a Caregiver Application Packet.
3. Training: Twenty-seven hours of training, required for primary caregivers and provided for free by the agency
4. Prescreening: Background check paperwork will be handed out on the third day of training.
5. Home study/home inspection: Once paperwork has been submitted and processed, a licensing worker will contact prospective parents to schedule home study visits.
Foster parent training sessions are open to the public though registration is required. For more information or to register, please call Lori Nichols, 888-423-2659 or lnichols@dcfs.nv.gov.
About Nevada Division of Child and Family Services
Nevada Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) together in partnership with families, community supporters and other governmental agencies, provides support and services to assist Nevada’s children and families in reaching their full human potential. DCFS serves Carson City and 14 rural counties in Nevada; Douglas, Churchill, Elko, Esmerlda, Eureka, Humboldt, Lander, Lincoln, Lyon, Mineral, Nye, Pershing, Storey and White Pine.
Learn more at www.dcfs.nv.gov, or by calling 888-423-2659.
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