Published September 2002

Businesses can touch
the life of a foster child

By Kimberly Hilden
SCBJ Assistant Editor

If you’ve been to a local chamber of commerce meeting lately, you may have run into Jeannine Fosca, the regional coordinator for the state’s Foster Care Improvement Plan. Since June, Fosca has been making the rounds of civic and business organizations, letting people know there’s a need in Region 3 — Snohomish, Skagit, Island, San Juan and Island counties — for foster-care support.

That includes everything from becoming a full-time or part-time foster parent to organizing a workplace gift drive around the holidays to help spread cheer to children who have been affected by abuse, neglect or some other family crisis.

While there are about 570 foster families in Region 3, that’s not nearly enough to place the children that come through the local offices of the Division of Children and Family Services, part of the state Department of Social and Health Services, Fosca said.

“We’re in a constant crisis,” she said, noting that there was a point this summer when colleagues were scrambling to place more than 30 children at one time.

Becoming a full-time foster parent, with its commitments of time and energy, isn’t for everyone, Fosca acknowledged, but there are other things a person can do to support the fostering network.

Like becoming a part-time foster parent, or what is known as offering “respite” to full-time foster parents. Under this program, a person opens his or her home to a child for one or two weekends a month, offering full-time foster parents a chance to recharge their batteries — and helping with foster family retention in the process, Fosca said.

Along with respite aid, volunteers to help transport or mentor foster children are needed, Fosca said, as are regular donations of a number of small items.

For instance, local Children and Family Services offices are always in need of packets of new underwear and socks for children who are placed into care on an emergency basis.

These children often come into Fosca’s office with their belongings stuffed into a plastic bag because they had nothing else to put them in. It’s sad to see, she said, adding that contributions of backpacks and duffel bags are always welcome.

So are donations of liquid baby formula, diapers, teething toys and bottles for infants, or juice boxes and individually packaged snacks for anxious youngsters who find themselves sitting in a Children and Family Services office.

These may sound like little things, Fosca said, but they do make a difference. They do offer comfort to children who have been taken out of a sometimes scary or harmful situation.

Businesses, in particular, can help by sponsoring a drive among their employees or customers, Fosca said, for the items mentioned above or possibly for gifts during the holiday season, a really “high need” time of year.

Then there are the other needs social workers bring to Fosca’s attention: a triplet stroller requested by a foster mother who has cared for more than 200 children during the past 14 years, a computer for a foster child with cerebral palsy who has difficulty writing, bunk beds, bookshelves, a crib — the list goes on.

“These are more costly items, yet there might be individuals who, on a periodic basis, will be willing to provide a needy family with such,” said Fosca, adding that while hers is a state agency, there has never been a budget to meet these needs.

And if there are businesses or individuals out there who know of other ways in which they can lend a hand — maybe it’s a restaurant that can donate gift certificates or a hairstylist who can provide free haircuts on a quarterly basis — Fosca would like to hear from them — and you.

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