Children Services celebrates success
Phillips, Larry. Mansfield News Journal, May 18, 2007, pg. B1.
MANSFIELD -- May is National Foster Care Month and Richland County Children Services knows just how to celebrate it.
The local agency will host its annual Foster Parent Appreciation Dinner on Saturday at the Life Celebration Center, 129 S. Main St. in Mansfield.
"This year's theme (for National Foster Care Month) is 'You Can Change a Lifetime," said Greg Kahl, communications supervisor of Richland County Children Services. "(This dinner) is to honor the many families and individuals who choose to open their hearts and homes by fostering children in Richland County."
The local agency achieved national recognition in October, earning the 2006 Adoption Excellence Award from the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The local agency was lauded for decreasing the length of time children in foster care wait for adoption by almost 20 percent over five years.
"The 2005 data supports the appropriateness of our strategies for securing adoptions for older children, African American children, and children in care for two years or longer," said Randy Parker, executive director of the local agency.
"(It also) caps a three-year span of being at the top or near the top of Ohio's major metro, metro and large non-metro public children service agencies."
Richland County Children Services was one of 13 recipients honored during a reception Nov. 28 in Arlington, Va. The agency was saluted for completing 52 percent of adoptions within 24 months of the child's entry into custody, well above the national standard of 32 percent and the state average of 31.1 percent.
Parker said there are 25,000 youngsters in Richland County and the agency provides some form of service to 1,000 of them. In addition, 73 children have been placed into the local Children Services system on a temporary basis, and 18 on a permanent basis.
All are residing in foster care. Still, there is a constant need for more foster parents.
"We can license people as foster parents or foster-to-adopt," Parker said. "It can be a six-month process to become licensed to be a foster parent."
At Saturday's dinner, featured speakers will include three members of the Overcoming Hurdles in Ohio Youth Advisory Board.
Kahl said the Mansfield Board of Realtors co-sponsored May's billboard campaign, "Open Your heart, Open Your Home." The board also donated 100 care bags filled with items for children that are taken into foster care.
WANT TO ADOPT?
For more information on local adoption: www.richlandcountychildrenservices.org
Or call Randy Parker at 419-774-4101.
MEET AND GREET
The RCCS Foster Parent Association will have a Meet And Greet at the Richland Carrousel Park Wednesday, May 23 from 4 to 6 p.m.
Free carousel rides and face painting will be available. Children Services staff and current foster parents will answer questions and provide information to prospective foster parents.
