Local family shares their experience with foster care through the COVID-19 pandemic

For over 17 years a local couple has brought foster children into their homes. They share their experiences on being foster parents in a pandemic.

More than 400,000 children in the US are in foster care.

With the pandemic putting on financial strains, halting court dates, and altering the way social workers go in to homes to check on children, foster children are looking to foster families for help navigating the pandemic.

“Typically what’s going to happen as we go back to school, more people are having contact with children there will be more cases and there will be more kids that could be put in foster care", says Senior Trainer and recruiter with Youth Villages, Donna Goodman.

Goodman mentioned they have leaned on virtual options for the foster care program process, but this has helped bring in more parents from outlying counties.

Daniel and Veronica Maclin have been foster parents years before the pandemic.

They said the pandemic has not changed much of the process for them, but they are making sure they are doing what they can to keep their foster children safe... like choosing virtual school.

“We decided to go virtual at home, due to their safety, our safety. And we began to explain to them so they can understand you know the risk of COVID-19 and everything", says Veronica.

Veronica was once in the foster care system and Daniel has been raising himself since he was a teenager, so they both understand how important it is to give children a home, especially in a pandemic.

Daniel added, “ [I] raised my own self since the age of 15. So, I know the love, I've been in predicaments looking for love, so I kind of understand so it makes it easy for us to understand a child, it makes it easier for us to draw to a child or feel the pain of a child of what they have been through.”

The Maclin's also mentioned how they have used Zoom and the telephone to connect with foster parent support groups since everything has turned virtual.

Officials at Youth Villages says they are always looking for new foster families. Imani Williams, for 39 news, in Jackson.

Visit https://www.youthvillages.org/foster-care/ or call 1-888-MY-YV-KID for more information on how to become a foster parent.