Monday, April 03, 2000
Hamilton County ads attract prospective foster parents
BY MARK CURNUTTE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Sharon Carr had thought for a long time about becoming a foster parent and is now in the process of becoming one.
Sharon Carr, 36, of Evanston attends a foster parent training class at the Hamilton County Department of Human Services.
(Tony Jones photo)
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The turning point was a TV commercial for the Hamilton County Department of Human Services.
“It clicked,” said the 36-year-old mother of one from Evanston who figures to get her first foster child by the summer. “The commercial finally got me. I said, "I can do this. I will do this.'”
TV spots are part of a $1.3 million advertising campaign launched Jan. 10 to help the county meet an acute need for foster parents and foster homes.
The one-time expense could save millions each year that now go to foster care in other counties.
Early results show the commercials and accompanying prints ads and billboards are working. Telephone queries are up at the parent recruitment hot line. The average for January and February is 821. The monthly average in 1999 was 470 calls.
Calls are coming from the entire region. Ohio homes within 50 miles of Cincinnati are eligible. Dozens of calls from nearby areas have been referred to their local foster care agencies.
The average monthly number of information packages sent out by Hamilton County has increased from 134 for the second half of 1999 to 308 for January and February.
“We're getting so many people informed,” said Val Larkin, recruiting supervisor for adoption and foster care for the county agency. “Maybe they had thought about it before. Now they see how bad the need is and they're coming forward.”
Hamilton County had 2,075 children in foster care in 1999. Eight-county Greater Cincinnati had 3,197, some 1,000 more than it did in 1995, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer's annual Tristate Child Index.
In the Tristate, 6.5 children per 1,000 children are in foster care. The U.S. rate is 7.8 per 1,000.
The Hamilton County ad campaign's goal is to bring 100 new foster families into the system. The county has maintained 400 foster homes for five years.
The agency ended February with 408 homes, the first time it has budged from 400 in five years.
In Hamilton County, the foster home shortage sends children outside of the area to “network homes,” which cost about $90 per day, compared with about $25 per day in a local foster home.
Department of Human Services spokeswoman Mindy Good said the addition of 100 “agency” homes would save about $2.3 million in taxpayer money every year.
Paul Cohen, Children's Services section chief for Hamilton County, said network homes can provide additional care that's needed for some children, “so we're glad they're out there,” but those placements make it more difficult to transport children into Hamilton County for tutoring and mental health and other services.
Foster parent recruits un dergo 36 hours of initial training. State law allows a maximum of 180 days during which a foster parent must complete training, become licensed and begin receiving placements.
The process includes physical and mental examinations for every person in the household, criminal background checks, joint and individual interviews, reference checks and a home fire inspection.
Ms. Carr is single. Other foster care and adoptive parent recruits also come in non-traditional couples, officials said. “Fostering takes all kinds of people because our kids come from all kinds of backgrounds,” Mr. Cohen said.
Ads — in newspapers and on TV and billboards — employ actors, foster parents and former foster children who have been adopted. Sixty percent of the adoptions match foster children with their foster parents.
TV ads use the song “Angel” by singer Sarah McLachlan, who received a flat fee from the county's ad agency.
The ads made recruit Ms. Carr cry.
“I felt I'd been blessed over and over and over in my life, most recent ly with a large house,” said Ms. Carr, who works at the Crossroads Center, which treats, in part, women who suffer from substance abuse. “And I felt that it was time for me to give back and that this was something I could do.”
She has a 13-year-old daughter.
“I can give a foster child the same love, direction, comfort and affection I give my daughter,” Ms. Carr said. “There is such a great need.”
Call 632-6366 for information about being a foster parent in Hamilton County. The hot line has referrals to numbers in Northern Kentucky, Indiana and surrounding Ohio counties.
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