VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — There’s a foster care crisis in Virginia, as more than 5,400 children and teens are in need of a home, with more than 900 of those in Hampton Roads alone.
Advocates say there’s a critical shortage in willing foster parents while the number of kids in foster care is rising in the area. Parental drug abuse and neglect are named some of the top reasons.
“Around the holiday there’s so many things that are happening mentally,” said Samantha Williams, foster recruiter with The Bair Foundation. “Mental illness, I believe, plays a part of it in the parents where they are not fit to take care of the children, maybe, at that moment.”
According to the Bair Foundation, a foster care and adoption agency in Virginia Beach, there are foster kids entering the system from every Hampton Roads city, with a major influx happening at the start of each school year.
“These kids are home all summer,” said Logan Whittington, intake coordinator with The Bair Foundation. “They’re kind of sliding under the radar a lot of times at home by themselves, and then they come to school and share, ‘Well, Mommy’s not home until 12 at night and I’m home alone watching my sister,’ or bruises may crop up that the school nurse notices. And then these children are referred into care.”
Those numbers increase into the holiday season, which is why around this time each year, a day is set aside to bring extra attention to at-risk kids and those already in foster care. It’s called ‘Stand Sunday.’
“Not only can you become a foster parent, but we have those who come in and they volunteer,” Williams said. “‘Stand Sunday’ is pretty much us getting together across the world and saying, ‘I’m going to stand for a child. I’m going to be a voice for the child, open up my home, open up my heart, my time, my energy.'”
For those interested in fostering, The Bair Foundation will be at The Mount (215 Las Gaviotas Blvd.) in Chesapeake Sunday.