New initiative aims to increase licensed foster families in Indiana
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Noblesville-based not-for-profit Hands of Hope and The Contingent, a venture not-for-profit in Portland, Oregon, on Tuesday announced the launch of Every Child Indiana.
The initiative, launched in conjunction with the Indiana Department of Child Services, is designed to recruit more licensed foster families and support families and those involved in child welfare throughout the state.
The effort is a collaboration involving 30 licensed foster child placement agencies and volunteer organizations to create a centralized network from which those in the child welfare space can find resources they need.
In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Hands of Hope Executive Director Suzy Roth said the goal is to reverse the idea of “not enough” in child welfare.
“In the state of Indiana, for too often, I think child welfare has been categorized by not enough homes for kids, not enough ideal placements where children can stay in the county that they live in, in their school district with their siblings, not enough support for foster families, so the retention rate is not great.” Roth said. “And our goal is really to kind of like turn the narrative around.”
As part of the initiative, an online portal has been created where people interested in becoming a foster parent or helping serve foster families, as well as individuals currently involved in child welfare can find all of the information they need in one place.
“There will be combined unified marketing to say, ‘Let’s get the word out that we want everyone to be all in for Indiana’s kids,'” Roth said. “And along with that, then there’s going to be a really simple, easy first step for people, which is, I think, the really unique part, because in the past, it just wasn’t there.”
The digital marketing campaign will encourage Hoosiers to support child welfare in various ways, including donating goods to foster children and families, volunteering to deliver those goods or fill goodie bags for child welfare workers to distribute, or becoming foster parents themselves.
The Every Child model was originally created in 2015 by The Contingent in Oregon, which saw inquiries from potential foster parents increase from 139 in its first year to more than 2,000 annually between 2020 and 2022. The model was launched in Arkansas in late 2022.
“We’ve created a very successful model,” Ben Sand, CEO of The Contingent, said in a news release. “With Every Child, anyone can get involved to support children, families and workers involved in the child welfare system. You may not be able to foster a child, but you can do something to support children in ways large and small. We can all contribute.”
Roth said they are focusing on three main areas with the initiative: recruitment and retention of foster families; prevention by providing early support so that children don’t need to be removed from their home; and reunification by providing support for biological families when they are reunited.
While the initiative is starting with 30 agency partners, Roth said they expect that number to grow.
“Our goal is that this truly would be a centralized way that someone in the state who wants to get involved with child welfare, whether it’s to be a foster parent or to get engaged in some other capacity as a community member, that they could go to this site and easily be able to figure out what’s a good next step for them.”
You can learn more about Every Child Indiana by clicking here.