RICHMOND, Va. -- As National Foster Care Month comes to a close, UMFS of Virginia said it was in need of more foster parents. Organization leaders said it has seen a 50 percent drop in applicants.
"We can't do our work without the foster parents, we saw a pretty dramatic drop during the pandemic," UMFS of Virginia president and CEO Dr. Nancy Toscano said.
That drop has negatively impacted the way UMFS can help the nearly 5,400 children in foster care
"The county Department of Social Services refer to us and we are able to say whether we can match the child that's referred to a foster parents. So we have had a drop in our ability to match," Toscano said.
Toscano attributed the drop to foster families to the pandemic.
"I think the amount of stress that was layered on families, for their own families, and their work situations, and the uncertainty and COVID caused people to pause," she said.
Delegate David Reid (D - Loudon) called the drop in foster parents "unfortunate." Reid found a foster family after he lived at UMFS for six years as a child.
"I had a really fantastic and an outstanding experience with the foster care system," Reid said. "They became like real parents to me and still are very much involved in my life."
UMFS said has started to see interest start to pick back up, but said more foster parents needed to come forward.
"We can use virtual platforms to train families," Adalay Wilson, Chief Program Officer at UMFS, said. "They don't necessarily have to come to the office. So, some of removing some of those barriers, I think, will help."
Reid encouraged Virginians to open their hearts and homes.
"It gives [children] an opportunity to be successful," he said. "It's an opportunity to be a life-changing event for children that might not otherwise have had that opportunity."
Click here if you're interested in becoming a foster parent.
