The definition of a family is “a group of people living together and functioning as a single household.” By this the meaning, a family can consist of many different mixes, each unique to the next. One family type often overlooked, but just as important as the rest, is a foster family.

A foster family is the “stand-in” or temporary family that is imperative in healing, helping, and comforting children left behind to fend on their own. Roughly about 500,000 children are currently in foster care as reported by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Many children are placed into foster care because they were abandoned, orphaned, or living in a dangerous or unhealthy situation.

The Montgomery County Department of Social Services (MCDSS), which partners with Giles, Montgomery, Pulaski and Floyd counties as well as the City of Radford, aims to help children by providing both the family and child with continuing support and guidance to maintain lasting relationships and healthy growing situations, said Lucy Brizendine, NRV Recruiter & Trainer for Foster, Resource, & Adoptive Parents.

The DSS social workers are the backbone and foundation that supports and aids these families and their children on a personal level. “This is the most rewarding and absolutely amazing job because it’s changing children’s lives by investing in their foster families,” Brizendine said. “It is an opportunity to invest in people and in the community that is unlike anything I ever done and I love it.”

Many say, “You don’t get to pick your birth children,” well many at Social Services feel the same. They say foster candidates need to realize the attachments that children make and how malleable children are. Foster candidates must realize that when they say yes to bring a child into their home, the children need them to stay committed.

Foster and adoptive parents can be single, married, with kids, or never had kids. As long as candidates can financially support the child and successfully complete the required training program, after also passing several background checks, they can foster a child.

The State of Virginia is one of five of the last states that require training programs to become a foster parent. The DSS’s nine-week program is held once a week beginning Jan. 26 on Monday nights. The following sessions begin in June and September. Three to five home visits are scheduled for one-on-one discussions about the prospective foster parent’s life, upbringing, fears, and interests. These home visits continue the assessment process for each prospective family.

The program centers on the needs of these children and is held for families to prepare themselves for the process. The foster parents learn everything from working with birth parents, to how to go to court, and even all questions they might need to ask teachers. Each training session is also a sponsored dinner to provide the families with a decent meal. Previous sponsors have been Dominoes, Amelia’s, Applebees, Macado’s, The Cellar, and Sharkey’s in Blacksburg, among others.

The three main focuses of the program are loss, attachment, and building relationships with birth parents. The foster parents are taught how understand and handle the child’s losses they feel, even down to their school librarian. They are encouraged to help the child maintain relationships they have built to gain a sense of stability.

The ending goal of foster care is returning the child to their birth parents; that is why strengthening the bond between child and birth parents is a main concentration. About 83 percent of children in this region are returned to their birth parents, which is extremely high compared to the 40 percent average of the nation.

Although this regional DSS program has a high success rate, it faces many hardships on a daily basis. The most important of which is the ratio of about 190 children to only 35-40 families. This causes many kids to leave their community for other foster families in the state or putting many kids in group homes or residential facilities.

The other biggest hardships are time and money. “Although we are somewhat blessed with grant money and community support, it would be amazing to have an endless recruiting budget,” Brizendine said. “I would also love to have another person in a position equal to mine as it is challenging to find the time to spend quality time with every family.”

To combat these difficulties, the NRV DSS program will launch a new campaign beginning in 2009. There will be TV, radio, billboard and newspaper advertisements, along with flyers and direct mail elements. The campaign will focus on how “foster and adoptive families can look like many different things” and can come in “all shapes and sizes.” Make sure to look for these ads in the upcoming year.

Brizendine will also be conducting at least five speaking opportunities in the NRV within the next two months, as she realizes word of mouth advertising is one of the most effective mediums for recruitment. She will be visiting places like churches, civic groups and even a PTA Christmas event to talk about the needs of the community and ideas on how everyone can be helping our children. Check with Brizendine at DSS for specific locations and times, or contact her to have her as a guest speaker for you or your organization.

For the holidays the NRV DSS program is also going to try a new program to benefit teens in foster care. Many teens have spent the holidays within their facility with the same staff they see on a daily basis. This new program will allow teens that have “earned their pass” or privileges to celebrate Christmas season with a family willing to take them into their home for a weekend.

Many of these teens have never had a Thanksgiving nor have any idea what a real Christmas tree may look like. Traditional things that many families perceive as normal might be shocking and hard for these teens to comprehend. This will give these teens an opportunity to see what reality is like beyond the walls of their locked residential facility.

The ultimate goal of foster care is to help these children heal and help them grow so they can eventually assimilate into the community. November was proclaimed Adoption Awareness Month by Governor Tim Kaine and December is certainly an important time for families. Use your holiday spirit to help a child in need.

Christine Pizzo is an intern for the New River Voice.