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Tucson's shortage of foster parents on the decline?
After an aggressive awareness campaign, Casa de los Niños is seeing a continued interest from dozens of parents wanting to be foster parents.
Reporter: Alexis Fernandez
TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN9-TV) -We hear it time and time again - there's a lack of foster care families.
“Foster care is a crisis that's been going on for decades, the crisis is not going away, and I don't predict the need for foster parents is going to go away anytime soon,” said Brooke Brunner, a recruiter for Casa de los Niños in Tucson.
But, there's more to just finding parents.
“How big of an issue was it here in Tucson to find foster families. It’s not difficult to find people who are interested initially, it's more difficult to find people who have what it takes, and really can handle the day to day work of being a foster parent,” she said.
The challenge is becoming easier, though.
Brunner says lately her parenting classes have been at capacity, something she's never seen before.
“People really rising to the community, they want to learn more, so we're developing more homes, screening families, because we just can't take anybody as a foster parent,” she said.
Locana de Souza is one of those prospective parents.
“I’ve recently just considered it, knowing that there's just a great need out there, and I believe I have a lot to offer a child in this type of situation,” she told us.
She says after volunteering at Casa de los Niños, she decided to apply.
“Really looking forward to having a child in my life, and providing a safe and secure environment for that child,” she said.
A future home that will hopefully help decrease our growing need.
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