Foster Families - S3E3 "A Chance At Life"

Guests
Allie Graves
Christen Butler - Executive Director The CALL
Dr. Derek Brown - Executive Director Arkansas Baptist Children and Family Ministries
Dennis Berry

Interested in becoming a foster parent? Find info here Every Child Arkansas
Read the SmartJustice Season 3 magazine

Welcome to season 3 of SmartJustice we're calling 'A Chance At Life'. This season we focus on the well-being and future of children, youth and families in the child welfare system.

Restore Hope https://www.restorehopear.org

A Chance At Life was written and recorded by artist/producer Jason Truby and licensed for use through Wixen Music Publishing, Inc. Watch the music video that includes the artist and community members passionate about making Arkansas a great place to raise a family. 

Transcript

00;00;04;13 - 00;00;27;09
Allie Graves
April Graves was a mother already of three boys. And for me, I again, she was a mother with no girl. I was a little girl without a mother. It was it's a very simple equation. So for me, I had no experience of what a mother or father should be. I was on my own. I was an adult at, you know, 17 months.

00;00;27;11 - 00;00;40;08
Allie Graves
And so for me, she simply filled in where my biological mother was. It was just simple as that.

00;00;40;11 - 00;00;48;05
Narrator
This is season three of the Smart Justice podcast, A Chance at Life.

00;00;48;07 - 00;00;54;21
Paul Chapman
Crime and Punishment are hot topics. Are their solutions different than what we're hearing about at national level?

00;00;54;22 - 00;00;59;15
Judge Tjuana Byrd Manning
Kids find themselves just struggling to survive, doing the best they can.

00;00;59;18 - 00;01;05;09
Paul Chapman
There is a different way to approach justice that has a better return on investment.

00;01;05;12 - 00;01;11;04
Misha Martin
We don't want people to be dependent. We want to help them get to stability.

00;01;11;06 - 00;01;17;01
Paul Chapman
That seems to strengthen both law enforcement and courts.

00;01;17;03 - 00;01;20;04
Jerome Strickland
The number one goal in most cases, we want reunifications.

00;01;20;05 - 00;01;28;04
Paul Chapman
And tie that together with community resources and then track the impact to communities and better outcomes.

00;01;28;06 - 00;01;32;08
Secretary Kristi Putnam
The best place for a child who's in our foster care system is with a family.

00;01;32;14 - 00;01;36;06
Paul Chapman
And we're calling this approach Smart Justice.

00;01;36;09 - 00;01;59;27
Narrator
Smart justice is a work of Restore Hope and partner organizations. Restore Hope is a software and services organization that helps communities achieve better outcomes for justice and child welfare efforts. Smart Justice is focused on optimizing the system by improving the relationships among its parts. In this third episode of Season Three: A Chance at Life.

00;02;00;02 - 00;02;06;16
Narrator
We're discussing the role of foster families. To start that discussion we introduce you to Allie Graves.

00;02;06;19 - 00;02;32;10
Allie Graves
Get ready because, you know, this is a bit of a long story, but I was born in Galveston and my birth parents could not care for me. There was drugs, criminal record. Also, just that generational curse of not knowing how to take care of a child. And so they were done there. But my biological father came back to the hospital in Galveston and took a Greyhound bus to Texarkana, Texas.

00;02;32;13 - 00;02;57;27
Allie Graves
From there, he basically was just trying to get someone else to take care of me. So he went to the church. He went to his biological family. They didn't want me. So he went back to the church. He dropped me off with the Mother's Day out director there, and he didn't come back. And so from about three months until 17 months, I was with this lady that was at the church and her family in a very safe, very healthy family.

00;02;58;00 - 00;03;22;16
Allie Graves
So April Graves is actually the woman who was the mother's day out director. And so from that 3 to 17 months, she filled in that role of mother and the biological family that didn't want me at first realized they can get some tax benefits off of me. And it wasn't too long after that until a man came into the household, a boyfriend, and he was a pedophile.

00;03;22;16 - 00;03;50;21
Allie Graves
And so I spent the first four years of my childhood, which should have been dancing and playing and going to the beach and trying to beat up my six foot one brothers, instead I was being abused and neglected on a daily basis. And so, yeah, no, no child should ever go through that. It's something that is still at age 21, very much burned into my mind and something that has affected a lot of my life choices and in good ways and bad ways.

00;03;50;23 - 00;04;21;21
Allie Graves
My half uncle walked in on me being abused by my... he wasn't my biological uncle, but the boyfriend. And he said, I'm not doing this. He called 911, called authorities. And so I was placed into foster care immediately. Forensic interview, the whole shebang. And my social worker called April Graves kind of in a crisis and in despair because she, you know, I was a totally different child.

00;04;21;21 - 00;04;42;03
Allie Graves
And when she first saw me, she told April Graves, I don't think anybody is going to want this child because of the things that I had seen, the way that I was acting. And so because I already had that previous relationship with the Graves family, I, I felt safe. You know, I was I felt like I could be a child again.

00;04;42;03 - 00;05;05;09
Allie Graves
And and it was a it was a safe home. It was a healthy home. And after that, the Graves family finally did all the papers, did all the money, and had me placed in their home, got custody of me at five, and then I was adopted at six. So from there, that's kind of where the the happy ending kind of started with with the Graves family.

00;05;05;11 - 00;05;46;27
Allie Graves
Something that's really important for foster parents to know is whether you have a child for 24 hours a week or way longer than you ever signed up for, that the brain of a child, whether that is an infant, a toddler, a teen, is a emotional impact that will allow them to psychologically be okay as an adult. As for me, because I had that 3 to 17 months, I was declared to be in the future to have secure attachment and to be psychologically stable.

00;05;47;00 - 00;06;11;02
Allie Graves
If I hadn't had that, Lord knows Robby probably be in that corner right now. Not making sense. And so it's hard and you have to persevere. And it's something that is is chaotic. But there is hope in that mess. There is a hope and a future for that child and that that's why these people sign up is that this child hopefully will have a better future than what they were born into.

00;06;11;04 - 00;06;47;07
Allie Graves
That's the whole point of being a foster parent is being the secure attachment of that child does not have. You are stepping in to be what that child needs. You know, at the end of the day, a lot of these people who are choosing to foster, they do it because they love children. And the last thing, this is one of my pet peeves, especially with people who are kind of naive to the foster care culture, I guess is or people who who are they know that to be a foster parent is an amazing thing, but they are kind of scared to do it.

00;06;47;10 - 00;07;02;04
Allie Graves
I don't want to get emotionally attached, whatever. This is not a dog. This is a human. This is a human. And if you don't get emotionally attached, they're not going to be okay. End of story.

00;07;02;07 - 00;07;27;05
Paul Chapman
So what we just heard from Allie as she was sharing part of her story with us was that as as things... sometimes things get so bad that the child has to be taken into state custody and then that child has to be placed in a safe, and the best place to place to put that child is in a family like setting if they can't be with their family.

00;07;27;07 - 00;07;46;27
Paul Chapman
And so that is termed a resource parent or what we just always talked about as a foster parent. And Andrew, you and Amy have been foster parents for some time. Can you share with how many children have you had through your home and what was that experience like?

00;07;46;29 - 00;07;51;06
Dr. Andrew Baker
We've had 15 children through our home and, you know,

00;07;51;08 - 00;07;52;19
Paul Chapman
Length of stay.

00;07;52;22 - 00;08;14;08
Dr. Andrew Baker
It varied. We've had some for over a year and we've had some for even more than a year. In most of the cases that have come into our home specifically, those kids have thankfully been able to return to a family member not in all cases, but in most of the cases. And so, you know, family reunification has been forefront.

00;08;14;10 - 00;08;38;13
Dr. Andrew Baker
We've never looked at ourselves from a perspective that we're there to be their new family or their new parents. We're there to be a support. Some come having, you know, families are just there to challenge point. They need this gap somebody to help build a bridge while in other cases it was it was it was bad. And those kids have lived through horrific things and they're brought into your home.

00;08;38;13 - 00;08;56;04
Dr. Andrew Baker
And, you know, people often ask, well, you know, don't don't, don't tell all the real bad stuff. And my answer is no, to tell you the truth. And so when that is the case, we need places that those kids can go and be safe and be loved and know the value that they have. So they have a chance.

00;08;56;11 - 00;09;19;25
Dr. Andrew Baker
All right. What? Knowing them to have a chance, We wanted them to be important members of society. We don't want them to be the outcast by any stretch of the imagination. One of my frustrations with Hollywood is the picture that's painted of foster kids, right? Those kids didn't choose that. They didn't choose to be separated from their families and be separated from all that they have known.

00;09;19;27 - 00;09;31;20
Dr. Andrew Baker
But in this time that they are and to step into that, to say it's been easy would be a lie. No, it's not been easy. But it's also been 100% worth it.

00;09;31;23 - 00;09;54;06
Paul Chapman
When the family is in such a crisis state that the children have to be removed, that the state will exercise that kind of power to remove children from a parent, then those that you under... then you just have to understand that some really bad stuff has preceded that

00;09;54;06 - 00;09;54;28
Dr. Andrew Baker
100%.

00;09;54;28 - 00;10;00;29
Paul Chapman
And those kids are a victim of kind of that environment.

00;10;01;01 - 00;10;26;25
Paul Chapman
And the very least, at least the removal where they don't have a say yet because they're a minor and so they come into your home. What's the first day like? I mean, you get the knock on the door and the social workers there and introducing Paul Chapman to you. Now you're going to stay here for a while as your mom gets things sorted.

00;10;26;28 - 00;10;27;21
Paul Chapman
What's that like?

00;10;27;24 - 00;10;48;06
Dr. Andrew Baker
Well, one of the challenges is every time it's been different, right? Every time it's been a different time of the day. Every time it's been a different story that led them there. But so just imagine, you know, you've had the experience of being removed, which is never a pleasant... I don't... I can't think of one case.I know of where removal was pleasant.

00;10;48;06 - 00;11;11;18
Paul Chapman
But now that may scare some people that are contemplating. They're hearing the need and they have compassion and they have the ability. They've got an extra room. They're hearing you say it's hard, but they're trying to envision what it would be like to bring this kid who's just suffered trauma of removal, at the very least into their home.

00;11;11;18 - 00;11;15;09
Paul Chapman
And they're very scared about that. What what's that like?

00;11;15;11 - 00;11;33;19
Dr. Andrew Baker
Imagine for yourself that right now I was going to tell you, I want to give you a random address in the city of Little Rock, and I want you to go knock on the front door and I want you to see if they'll let you in, because that's what every kid's feeling. Right? So how how do I get in front of that?

00;11;33;21 - 00;11;57;18
Dr. Andrew Baker
Well, every time we would have a kid who would be coming to our home, we would try to meet them at the street. Right. And if possible, we're asking questions of the resource worker or the caseworker who's bringing them. Like, what can you tell us about them already? Names, things that they like. All of those pieces that could at least make a connection point, right?

00;11;58;10 - 00;12;22;15
Dr. Andrew Baker
This is challenging for everybody, but just stop. Take a deep breath and pause and put yourself in the kid's shoes. The person who has zero control over the situation. Zero. Right. And I've had families who have said. Well, I just wish to understand how much we've done for them. That has zero relevance to them. Zero.

00;12;22;17 - 00;12;49;04
Dr. Andrew Baker
Why does that have no relevance then? Because they don't know where that's coming from. They don't know you. The burden of connection is not on the child. The burden of connection is on the people who have said they will open their home. Is that burden worth it? 100%. I would do it again. But understanding that there's not some perfect formula here because every situation is different.

00;12;49;06 - 00;12;55;27
Paul Chapman
And you think as you have had more and more children in your home, you've become a veteran.

00;12;56;17 - 00;12;57;06
Dr. Andrew Baker
I guess you.

00;12;57;06 - 00;13;30;00
Paul Chapman
You gain the wisdom to be able to understand what the child's going through and how to respond in a better way. That's why I think it's important not only that we have more families be foster families, but if we can keep families like you and Amy, there is now, you've you've got the experience and that veteran experience is very important to be able to help kids in our communities as well.

00;13;30;02 - 00;13;41;04
Dr. Andrew Baker
Well, I'm not the only person at this table who is a veteran. Fact, I think you got a couple of years on me, my friend. So what what's what's the Chapman family story, by the way? Your wife's unbelievable, but that's.

00;13;41;10 - 00;14;04;02
Paul Chapman
How she is. Yeah, she is. So. And that's really where our story starts is we started dating as we were kids and we were 16 years old. And Lori had mentioned over the years of of us growing up together that she always wanted to adopt. And and I thought for sure that I'd talk her out of that or she’d grow out of it.

00;14;04;02 - 00;14;39;12
Paul Chapman
But we had started having kids of our own. I was in financial technology and had made a transition just to the church to work as a pastor. And while I was at the church within the first several months, a lady came in. Her name was Mary Carol Pederson, and I got invited to the meeting. I'm still trying to figure out what it means to be a pastor, and she pulls up this PowerPoint slide real quick.

00;14;39;13 - 00;15;03;15
Paul Chapman
She says, We have a crisis, a child welfare crisis in our community in Pulaski County. I hear the number of children there in foster care here, the number of protective services cases. I didn't know what any of this meant. And and she said, the way that I read my Bible, that God cares about kids that are in crisis and families that are in crisis. I've just shown you that there are families in crisis in this community.

00;15;03;18 - 00;15;24;09
Paul Chapman
You're the leaders of the church. And I'm coming here to ask you what you're going to do about it. I can remember standing around going, I think she sewed that argument up. I think she's got us in a corner where we're going to have to actually do something. And there was a pastor that I had the benefit of working many, many years with Ray Williams, who had been heavily involved in the community.

00;15;24;09 - 00;15;49;09
Paul Chapman
And he started calling people around and Mary Carroll started calling DCFS workers. And I can still remember this very first meeting where there were just community members, whether they be agency personnel or just folks from the community that cared about kids, were trying to understand, one, what really was going on and then what could the community do about it if we chose to.

00;15;49;09 - 00;16;12;29
Paul Chapman
And so, you know, after that community meeting, it was determined that an organization should be created that would bridge the gap between the churches that wanted to recruit and train and the DCFS, the Department of Children and Family Services, and that organization’s called The Call that's been in existence now for going on 15 years, and it's helped thousands of individuals.

00;16;12;29 - 00;16;41;09
Paul Chapman
So that's how I got connected. And we had the opportunity to sit down with the executive director of the call and the executive director of and an over a 100 year year old organization that's been in child welfare for that long called Arkansas Baptist Children and Family Ministries. It's now the largest private placement provider for foster parents in the state of Arkansas.

00;16;41;11 - 00;17;13;25
Paul Chapman
Christen is with The Call. And The Call launched about 16 years ago out of Mary Carol Pederson’s making people aware. And then we're we're with Derek Brown. And Derek is the executive director of Arkansas Baptist Children and Family Ministries. So ya’ll, foster families. Let's talk just a little bit about the importance of foster families in Arkansas. So one is how many children right now are in foster care in Arkansas?

00;17;14;02 - 00;17;18;26
Christen Butler
There's approximately 4200 children in youth and foster care in Arkansas today.

00;17;18;28 - 00;17;25;15
Paul Chapman
And so how many foster families are needed to care for those 4200 kids?

00;17;25;15 - 00;17;47;23
Christen Butler
So right now, we have around 1600 foster families in the state of Arkansas, but we need more. Our goal is for kids to stay as close to there in county as possible. And so when we don't have enough foster families in their local home county, then they have to transport from county to county lines. And it causes more of a burden on DCFS, more of a burden for the bio families.

00;17;47;26 - 00;17;52;16
Christen Butler
And so we really need to increase that number closer to the 2000 to 2400 mark.

00;17;52;16 - 00;17;56;07
Paul Chapman
So we're about four or 500 families shy right now.

00;17;56;14 - 00;17;57;07
Christen Butler
Yes.

00;17;57;09 - 00;17;59;23
Paul Chapman
How long does it take to become a foster family?

00;17;59;26 - 00;18;10;01
Christen Butler
So that can vary. There's a lot of requirements, obviously, to certify a family. On average, our goal is that we have the family certified within 90 days to 120 days.

00;18;10;03 - 00;18;21;01
Paul Chapman
Okay. And is there any guess on how long a family kind of contemplates becoming or serving in this way before they start down the road to becoming certified?

00;18;21;03 - 00;18;37;17
Derek Brown
I think every family has to identify when the time is right for them. You know, and so most families who come to us, they've been thinking about it for a while. You know, it is a big decision. Sometimes it takes knowing a family in order to decide to make that commitment for yourself. You've seen somebody else do it.

00;18;37;20 - 00;18;49;23
Derek Brown
You've engaged with somebody at church who's become a foster family and you think, Hey, I can do that, too. And so for many families, it takes seeing that encounter. But some are ready to sign up and go right away. And so we appreciate both.

00;18;49;25 - 00;19;13;10
Paul Chapman
Can we talk about why someone would foster? I mean, when ya’ll... when you obviously you work with a lot of families that have chosen to do so. And what would you say, you know, where the whys behind doing something because it it's pretty... raising kids is a pretty hard thing. And then, you know, having a child that's not biologically yours introduced in your household could be pretty disruptive.

00;19;13;12 - 00;19;30;00
Derek Brown
I think it comes down to empathy. You know, I think there are a lot of reasons that people state that they foster. But I think ultimately it comes down to empathy. We find that some people have been in similar situations throughout childhood. And as adults, they want to offer another child a different trajectory, a different path.

00;19;30;02 - 00;19;33;27
Paul Chapman
The Call has been around for about how many years?

00;19;33;28 - 00;19;34;29
Christen Butler
16 years.

00;19;35;00 - 00;19;39;22
Paul Chapman
16 years. And do you have any idea how many foster families you've helped recruit?

00;19;39;24 - 00;20;03;19
Christen Butler
We do. And it's it's so amazing to have a little piece in this. Our foster families are just amazing. So in the 16 years that the call has existed, we have helped train and open over 3000 foster families in the state of Arkansas. And those families have gone on to help support over 28,000 children and youth in foster care in Arkansas and have adopted over 3000 children into their forever families.

00;20;03;20 - 00;20;09;13
Christen Butler
So it's an amazing, amazing thing to get to witness and to see these families step into this ministry setting.

00;20;09;15 - 00;20;11;22
Paul Chapman
So how do you all go about doing that?

00;20;11;25 - 00;20;32;12
Christen Butler
Yeah. So the call exists. We mobilize local Christian churches to step into this mission field of foster care. And so we work with churches to recruit and raise awareness. And once those families step up and say, We're interested, then we train them, we provide trauma education, and we really work to build that community network of support around them.

00;20;32;14 - 00;20;42;22
Christen Butler
Once the families are open, we want to engage that network to support them because it's a hard job. And so we want to support them with support groups, continuing education and immediate care needs.

00;20;42;24 - 00;20;48;21
Paul Chapman
Derek, how do you go about finding your folks that would serve as a foster family?

00;20;48;23 - 00;21;10;09
Derek Brown
We find that for us it's about engaging the community that we're in. And so we're looking at, you know, asking church people, will you step up and do this? But I do think that comes back to just education and understanding of recognizing that this is something that any church person can be involved in, regardless of what church they go to, where they are.

00;21;10;12 - 00;21;22;01
Derek Brown
This is something that they can do. And so whether that is being a foster parent or whether it's just engaging that foster community. It is a hard job. We want to make it as easy as possible, and we do that through community.

00;21;22;04 - 00;21;32;26
Paul Chapman
So so Arkansas Baptist Children and Family Ministries, it's been around for a long time in Arkansas serving. Can you just give us a quick overview of of what that’s looked like?

00;21;32;29 - 00;21;47;19
Derek Brown
Yeah. So in 2024, it'll be 130 years that we've existed as an organization. So we've been around for a minute. And so I've told some I recently that I feel like 129 years startup because we do a lot of new things, even though we've been around for a long time.

00;21;47;21 - 00;21;53;07
Paul Chapman
It's amazing that you've been able to to kind of flex with the context of what was going on.

00;21;53;11 - 00;22;14;24
Derek Brown
Yeah, and you know, I was actually looking through our history just recently and seeing just the gravitation toward creating some change and being more family focused and so on. And so it's beautiful even to see the things that we're doing now. We're talked about in the 1960s. And so, you know, just a progression toward how can we be more family centric.

00;22;14;27 - 00;22;35;26
Derek Brown
And so in recent years as as a state, really both the state of Arkansas and at a national level, there's been more of a push to get back to having a family focus, of keeping kids with their bio family, if at all possible, or maintaining the most family like setting possible for the purpose of getting kids back to family.

00;22;35;29 - 00;23;11;03
Paul Chapman
You know, you're talking about family. It just kind of struck me as over the years I've contemplated, you know, the difficulty in finding families and keeping families in this kind of hard service. And why we need the community so much is because of the importance of the family in raising a child. It's really the community is is the one who is needed to be able to serve that child and the biological family so that they might get back together again.

00;23;11;06 - 00;23;28;28
Paul Chapman
Kristen, what have you seen over the years with The Call and recruiting and supporting foster families? There's a shift that's been going on for a number of years in the state for placing with relatives, with kin. And can you just talk about what you've seen there?

00;23;29;00 - 00;23;48;21
Christen Butler
Sure. So there's been a significant shift within the state and the goal is, if at all possible, to keep those bonds within the child and youth with their family as long as possible. And so if mom and dad maybe need a little time to get some resources and help that they need, the next ideal place is maybe with an aunt or an uncle or a grandparent.

00;23;48;23 - 00;24;06;24
Christen Butler
And so our goal with The Call is to support them well, because those family members need help, just like any other foster family would need help. And so we want to help provide a community of network to support them, tangible things they may need. Immediate care items, but these families are stepping up to be that interim placement for that child.

00;24;06;24 - 00;24;12;15
Christen Butler
And they need just as much support as any traditional foster family would need.

00;24;12;17 - 00;24;22;27
Paul Chapman
Derek I don't know how many years ago, but you were one of the few organizations that started this private placement.

00;24;22;29 - 00;24;52;06
Derek Brown
So 2017, Arkansas created a contract for placement providers to do private placement foster care that was new to our state. It wasn't new across our country. Some states had already moved to 100% private placement. But for Arkansas, this was a very new thing. At the time. The goal really was to take, you know, some residential care providers who wanted to shift from that model of care to more of a family centric model of care, to give them a way to do that.

00;24;52;07 - 00;25;16;23
Derek Brown
And we were certainly one to want to jump to take that step. And so, you know, the goal is what we would do through residential care. We do through care in the homes. And so private foster care, the state reaches out to us with a child. And we have a family that we've trained and equipped. We've done the home study, we've done the training, and we do the case management.

00;25;16;23 - 00;25;41;15
Derek Brown
So we actually can come in and and place that child into a home that we've equipped to be a foster home to take care of that child. So the kids still are our state custody kids, but the homes are trained and supported through a private agency like ours. And so we feel like if we do our job well, then kids will have more placement stability and we'll have better foster parent retention.

00;25;41;18 - 00;26;08;27
Derek Brown
And so the foster parenting journey is hard, but we've heard so many times, there are challenges beyond just taking care of the kids. And so what we said often is we want to make sure that taking care of the kids is the hardest thing to foster care, not the system or the process or the the you know, the difficulty of getting the training that you need or when you have challenges to make sure that somebody is available to help you through those.

00;26;09;00 - 00;26;28;20
Derek Brown
And so I think for private foster care, through the last several years, we've been able to demonstrate solid placements stability, solid foster parent retention. And so that's helped that to grow and to, you know, just have a better partnership with the state. Our goal is not to replace the state. Our goal is not to say, hey, we do better than the state.

00;26;28;20 - 00;26;44;14
Derek Brown
Our goal is to help the state to take care of the families who take care of the kids so that they'll stay in the game longer. You know, ultimately, what we need in our state is veteran foster families. We need people who've done this a time or two.

00;26;44;17 - 00;27;17;23
Paul Chapman
That's why I think it's important not only that we have more families be foster families, but if we can keep families like you and Amy. Now you've you've got the experience, and that veteran experience is very important to be able to help kids in our communities as well. And we got to talk with a veteran foster family. Dennis Berry sat down with us and we got to interview him about the over 100 children that have come through his home.

00;27;17;25 - 00;27;46;15
Dennis Berry
So last week, we took in our 165th child. Lots of kids. The day we got opened, they called us within hours and said, we have two children we need you to take in tonight. And we we started right then in summer of 2008. We normally have a long term placement or two, which is a brother and a sister, brothers or sisters that we're going to keep for six months, nine months throughout the course of their case.

00;27;46;17 - 00;28;13;18
Dennis Berry
But the need is so great and there's so few homes and so few beds available because a lot of foster homes are full already, that when the DCFS, the Department of Children Family Services worker calls us and when they take kids into care at night, a lot of times on a Friday afternoon, we'll take those kids in just for the night, just for the weekend, as they're calling other foster families, trying to find a more long term place, stable place to put the kids.

00;28;13;20 - 00;28;49;01
Dennis Berry
The great part about being a foster parent is you have total control of when you say, yes, I'll take a child or no, I won't. The need will definitely be there no matter when somebody is comfortable, ready and willing to make the commitment, the need will be there. So people need to understand that when Department of Children Family Services calls you to take a child, they're going to tell you if it's two, four, six, eight, a boy, a girl. They're going to tell you about the situation and you're going to be able to make an educated decision, not rushed, and decide whether you're going to take that child or children in a lot of cases.

00;28;49;04 - 00;29;10;19
Dennis Berry
And so don't feel rushed. Don't feel hurried about it and do what's right for you and your family. Unfortunately, now the case is that so many kids have come into care and there's not enough homes that those calls to take kids come quite often, and there could be a time here in just a couple of minutes I get a text or two while we're sitting here talking about this need.

00;29;10;21 - 00;29;32;16
Dennis Berry
You know, there's been kids that have been so traumatized. They have attachment disorders and we've had to work through those attachment disorders. And it's very painful while you're going through it because the kids don't like it. They're uncomfortable. They have their reaction to the love and support you're showing them. But once you get past that, it's a really warm feeling.

00;29;32;16 - 00;29;56;00
Dennis Berry
It shows that they're success out there. And we don't have success with every child, but when we do, it's really impactful. How do you get started? You know, there are so many great ways to get started. You know, you can find out with DCFS on the Internet, you can you can inquire there. I know Every Child Arkansas has a great new website where people can go through questionnaires to find out which way you'd like to become licensed and become open.

00;29;56;03 - 00;30;19;05
Dennis Berry
There are several great groups here in Arkansas to support you, but the training is important. You want to make sure you have good training and you have the opportunity to ask a lot of questions. The trainers that are out there, in fact, you know, I train families as well. So we get to get out and train families and give them some of our experiences of what we've seen, what we've done, how to work with traumatized children.

00;30;19;08 - 00;30;40;06
Dennis Berry
You know, one thing we have to tell new families is these kids are not your biological children. They haven't been living with you from birth. They've been living in different circumstances, in a different environment and have a different set of expectations and a different set of acceptance of rules. And so we really need to be attentive to what the kid's needs are.

00;30;40;06 - 00;31;03;19
Dennis Berry
We have to give them distance. We have to use a lot of grace with the children that come into our home. We really do. So when children come into foster care, the state DCFS wants to put these children with family. As great as I think it might be to live in my house, I believe and Natalie, we believe it's better for those children to be with their families.

00;31;03;21 - 00;31;25;08
Dennis Berry
God gave these kids to that family. And if that family lives differently than we do, that's okay. That's the family God gave them. As long as it's safe and healthy for the kids to be there. So we fully support kids being with family. There have been many times we've taken kids into our home because of some police contact where the parents are not available.

00;31;25;10 - 00;31;44;16
Dennis Berry
And unfortunately, aunts, uncles, grandparents aren't available that time when the parents come and do with kids come into care. There are times, though, where we've had those kids for a weekend and by the end of the weekend, by Monday morning, the grandparents find out the kids are in foster care. That's where they need to be. I fully believe that.

00;31;44;21 - 00;31;57;24
Dennis Berry
And so if family steps up to take care of the kids, we're very appreciative of those families. We really do. And that's what families should do, is stand up and take care of your own.

00;31;57;27 - 00;32;22;18
Paul Chapman
The State of Arkansas has kind of this strategy now that we've been moving to since the Family First legislation happened in D.C. and that was to increase the number of kinship or relative placements to about 40%, which we've been sticking at for at least a year. And then those other 60% we’re trying to move to those 60% of foster families being private placement.

00;32;22;21 - 00;32;27;04
Paul Chapman
And so how in the world do we do that quickly?

00;32;27;06 - 00;32;47;06
Derek Brown
Really, it comes down to recruiting so we can have all of the strategy in the world, all of the collaboration. But at the end of the day, families have to know we will take care of them. And so we talk about wanting to retain foster families. And ultimately, that's our goal. But when we think retention, we want the season to last as long as they think it can last.

00;32;47;09 - 00;33;17;14
Derek Brown
And so we realize not everybody can sign up to do this for the rest of their lives. You sign up for a season. What we want is to make sure that season doesn't end prematurely because of complications. And so I think if we can support really well so that we have foster parents staying in the game longer and then do our best recruiting collaboratively, using every method that we know how, whether that's a high tech, you know, consumer engagement type method or whether it's just face to face on the ground.

00;33;17;14 - 00;33;39;10
Derek Brown
What we need to know is that, you know, people need to know that there's a need. And ideally we keep foster children in their own community. If we do this well, we keep kids close. We make it possible for them to go home sooner. And then because we foster locally, we can engage locally after they go home and and try to engage that community continually.

00;33;39;16 - 00;33;54;14
Paul Chapman
I was looking at a report that DCFS had produced a few weeks ago, and it seemed like there wasn't a community in Arkansas that had half the kids taken from the county placed in the county. Is that right?

00;33;54;17 - 00;34;17;26
Christen Butler
That's right. Right now, we're saying the majority of kids are placed, we call it out of county. And so that really creates a twofold issue. One, when these children move out of county, they're separated from the bonds that they did have. And we know that attachment and healthy bonds are key to stable children, families, adults. And so when they're moved out of county, they lose that relationship with maybe a church.

00;34;17;26 - 00;34;44;09
Christen Butler
They have connections with a coach, a counselor, a teacher, their friends. And so now they're separated from their home and their biological family and every other connection that they have. And then they're placed out of county, which creates double the workload on the state, on the Division of Children and Family Services. So now these children or their bio families are being transported from county to county for visits for therapy, appointments for court meetings.

00;34;44;11 - 00;34;53;06
Christen Butler
And so it just overloads the system that's already overloaded. Plus, it's not creating this healthy and key bond for those children in care.

00;34;53;08 - 00;35;20;10
Paul Chapman
And so what I'm hearing you say is what we really need is people in the community to kind of own the problem in their own community. And if they can care for their own community members, then it starts to really take care of the problems overall that we're going to have to straighten this out to be able to provide the kind of care that our children deserve.

00;35;20;13 - 00;35;27;00
Paul Chapman
Where could someone go to find out what the situation is in their own community?

00;35;27;02 - 00;35;48;29
Christen Butler
So there's tons of resources, and that's one thing. The state of Arkansas is further ahead than most other states in the nation, in partnership with the Division of Children and Family Services and local partners like Arkansas Baptist Ministries, The Call and so many others. And so you can go to EveryChildArkansas.org and you can plug in your zip code, and it's going to tell you the local partners that you can connect with.

00;35;49;01 - 00;36;01;25
Christen Butler
And there they can provide all the local numbers, of the number of kids in care and tangible ways that you can get in and support bio families, foster families, or even step as a step up as a foster family yourself.

00;36;01;27 - 00;36;08;15
Paul Chapman
For those considering fostering. Exactly what is the job?

00;36;08;17 - 00;36;27;06
Christen Butler
It really boils down to saying yes and opening your home to be a safe, loving, healing home. It's not that you can fix all the issues, but it's that you're willing to listen and be supportive of that placement, whether it's with you for a day, a week or a year, however long that may be.

00;36;27;09 - 00;36;45;25
Paul Chapman
Yeah. So I've got a bunch of kids and kids are expensive, like bad, expensive. And so if I'm considering fostering and bringing more children in, you know, is there any help to offset the expenses of raising now additional kids?

00;36;45;27 - 00;37;09;07
Derek Brown
Yeah. So the state does pitch in and support that, whether through a private placement agency or directly through the state. Every foster parent will get a stipend each month based on the number of days and care the child has has been in your home. And so it's not considered compensation. Nobody gets paid to be a foster parent. And if you do it right, all of this will go toward the care of the child.

00;37;09;10 - 00;37;23;00
Derek Brown
But if you do it right, you shouldn't have to come out of pocket a whole lot otherwise. And so the state doesn't want this to cost you something other than your time and your emotional energy and your effort and your your love that you put into that.

00;37;23;02 - 00;37;30;17
Paul Chapman
So how do you know if you're qualified to be a foster parent? Where does that? Who Makes that decision?

00;37;30;19 - 00;37;52;25
Derek Brown
So ultimately, there's there's two governing bodies that make the decision. One is the state licensing board. They set the minimum criteria for who qualifies as a foster parent. But then there's also DCFS. And since DCFS is a legal guardian for all of these kids, they have to determine you know through every application whether a person qualifies as a foster parent.

00;37;52;28 - 00;38;09;25
Derek Brown
And they do that through the application and the background checks and also through the home study. And so even where we have a a partner with DCFS who will do the home study, DCFS ultimately reviews those home studies to determine does this family meet the needs for a foster child.

00;38;10;02 - 00;38;17;28
Paul Chapman
Let's say I wanted to become a foster parent. And I'm assuming that it starts with me making application, is that right?

00;38;18;01 - 00;38;37;15
Christen Butler
Yes. There's a application process that you go through. There's background checks for all adult members of the home, and then there's training. And so that training provides trauma informed education. It talks about the requirements in the home, what's expected of you, kind of the court process. And it's the best way to prepare you as a family to open your home as a foster home.

00;38;37;18 - 00;38;40;17
Christen Butler
And once you've gone through that, you'll have home studies where then the state....

00;38;40;17 - 00;38;40;27
Paul Chapman
What’s a home study.

00;38;41;03 - 00;38;52;19
Christen Butler
A home study is where someone will come in and verify your home. They'll make sure that all of your medications are locked up and appropriate. They want to make sure that the home itself, the physical location, is safe for any child coming into care.

00;38;52;22 - 00;38;57;02
Paul Chapman
And then about how long does that journey take? Once I've turned in my application.

00;38;57;05 - 00;39;15;00
Derek Brown
Some of it depends on you and some of it depends on, you know, the entity that you're working with. I think everybody's goal is, you know, 90 days. But sometimes background checks take longer. If you've been in other states, you know, it's just going to take longer to get that kind of thing back. When do you start to training, how fast you go through?

00;39;15;03 - 00;39;21;12
Derek Brown
We can do it in as quick as 90 days, but you know, 90 to 120 days, it's what it's taken most people.

00;39;21;12 - 00;39;41;26
Paul Chapman
So let's say that that your message has hit me in some way, but I'm not ready to foster right now. But I do want to help in some way and maybe start my journey of contemplation to to foster. What would I do?

00;39;41;28 - 00;40;00;00
Christen Butler
I think reach out to a local organization. If you go to everychildarkansas.org, put in your zip code and connect with a local organization. There are so many ways to step into this space and not step up as a foster parent just yet. You could be a support family. You could be a volunteer with a local organization.

00;40;00;08 - 00;40;22;23
Christen Butler
You can work in the clothing closet, you can help with the visitation centers. There are so, so many ways. You can work with your church and your business to do pajama drives or gift card drives for teens that come into care. There's a million ways to step in and engage within this space. And so I just encourage you to go to that website and see how you can connect.

00;40;22;26 - 00;40;38;22
Paul Chapman
I guess what we're saying here with fostering and if you're considering becoming a foster parent, staying a foster parent or helping someone that's fostering right now is it's hard, but it's worth it.

00;40;38;24 - 00;40;55;20
Dr. Andrew Baker
Oh, it's 100% worth it because kids are worth it. Like, that's a lot of money at the end of day, this kids worth it. Do I think that every home in the state of Arkansas needs to be open as a foster home? No, no, no, absolutely not. Do I think every person has a role they can play in supporting?

00;40;55;23 - 00;41;24;04
Dr. Andrew Baker
Absolutely so. And, you know, but the realization of the value of a child and to see them understand and grow in an awareness of we want you to know this is a place that is safe. We need more families so kids can stay in their communities. We need more who will come and walk with the parents and in the recruiting of families to, be involved in foster care.

00;41;24;10 - 00;41;41;06
Dr. Andrew Baker
We need people who are going to show up and be faithfully present. Why? Because the kids are worth it. You stop and you put that child in your lap. All of a sudden. That's all the perspective I need, right? Because their value is that important.

00;41;41;09 - 00;42;04;00
Dennis Berry
There's so many active foster parents that want to tell their story to help the new foster homes, because as a seasoned foster parent, I know that the only help we're going to get to take on the more kids that we have in care is the new foster homes. We want them to open up. We want them to learn from, enjoy the experience of becoming a foster parent.

00;42;04;02 - 00;42;07;13
Dennis Berry
And we want them to stay as a foster parent too, long term.

00;42;07;16 - 00;42;28;28
Allie Graves
I think it's always a pot of gold when you listen to someone else's story. I think that's another thing that's really encouraging for foster parents too, is look at people's stories, listen to people's stories, Remember what you're doing this for. You didn't just start this because you wanted to be a good person. Good people don't do this.

00;42;29;00 - 00;42;54;08
Allie Graves
You know, they're it's so much deeper than that. People are sacrificing their time, their money, their efforts. Anything that involves love is a risk. But love is eternal and again, when you're thinking about the next generation of adults and you are... Even for a short period of time... What's the alternative? Not being able to love at all?

00;42;54;08 - 00;42;56;19
Allie Graves
What is that... What is that outcome going to be for that person then?

00;42;56;19 - 00;43;20;02
Dennis Berry
Why do we keep fostering? We had that question from a friend a while back and she asked, Natalie, why are you doing this? Because there are some difficult times, some very tough times you have to go through. I can't imagine life without fostering the impact you can have on the kid, the hope you can give them. I mean, they're our future.

00;43;20;04 - 00;43;36;04
Dennis Berry
These kids are going to be in our community and they're going to be part of our future. And do we want these kids to be struggling or do we want them to have the hope and the opportunity to see there's another way to live and make their life better?

00;43;36;06 - 00;44;02;06
Allie Graves
I always think about that quote of, you know, why would I live a life of comfortability knowing there are thousands of children that if I were to just break off piece of my heart, that that would make their lives better. And I think that's worth it. And I think that's what Arkansas is trying to do. I do believe that Arkansas will be the first state to accomplish something like this, and it is going to change this country.

00;44;02;06 - 00;44;14;23
Allie Graves
And I think it's going to change the world.

00;44;14;25 - 00;44;37;06
Narrator
Thank you for joining the discussion and to all the resource families and foster parents that have taken up this call. Join us next week as we look at how to resource biological and foster families for the benefit of the children. Smart Justice hosts are Paul Chapman and Dr. Andrew Baker. Thanks to our guests Allie Graves, Christen Butler, Derek Brown and Dennis Berry.

00;44;37;08 - 00;44;52;28
Narrator
Our Season three theme song, “A Chance at Life” is written and produced by Arkansas artist Jason Truby. Other musical credits include “Glacier” by Andy Ellison and “Future Memories” by Caleb Etheridge.

00;44;53;00 - 00;44;55;19
Music
I found hope for the first time.

00;44;55;21 - 00;45;01;21
Narrator
Smart Justice is produced by Restore Hope. To learn more visit www.SmartJustice.org.

00;45;01;26 - 00;45;11;07
Music
Two broken pieces made a brand new design and it gave this soul.

00;45;11;10 - 00;45;12;23
Music
A chance at life.