Number of foster homes dips

Editor’s Note: This continues our Celebrate Community series on nonprofit organizations that improve Santa Rosa County residents’ quality of life.

PENSACOLA — Florida’s Circuit One, which consists of Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties, is facing a foster care crisis, according to National Youth Advocate Program therapist Sara Passaro.

“We are currently at a shortage of 75 to 80 beds and that's just to be at a stable place, not a thriving overproduction of foster parents.”

While the reasons are nothing abnormal, the trend is going in the wrong direction, according to Program Supervisor Jamilyn Ruckman.

“There’s been a recent rash of relocations, moving, job changes, (so we’re) losing some foster homes," Ruckman said. "So right now the deficit is increasing because we have more kids coming into care and foster parents leaving the program for normal reasons, not anything crazy (and) we're not able to replace them as quickly as we need to, which is what we're working on, but in all four counties, that is the trend right now.”

NYAP trains foster families to deal with children who are harder to handle than most.

“We recruit, train, license, and support foster families who take in our more difficult to place children and youth. We provide ongoing training. We provide in-home therapy for our kids in care and we service children birth to 18 who have medical, developmental, behavioral, and emotional challenges,” Passaro said.

All NYAP-referred youths are in care for abuse or neglect but don’t need the intense care of a group home or lockdown facility, Passaro said.

“We’re in between," Passaro said. "So we are not Medicaid-funded. We take in kids that don't necessarily have a diagnosis but have behavioral problems, are on the autism spectrum, who need a little more support but don't need a high-intensity, therapeutic-level home.”

These youths without supportive foster homes face steep challenges by the time they age out of the system.

“The things that you hear about foster kids and the outcomes that they face are very true, so every time a child changes schools they lose six months of educational attainment," Passaro said. "Only three percent of kids that age out of the foster system end up finishing college if they even enroll. Forty-five percent of kids, within the first four years that they leave the foster care system, as an adult, end up incarcerated. We need foster parents who are supportive and helping to be there for these kids so that they have a long-lasting, positive impact on their own community."

Because of the lack of local homes, many of these youths end up in homes far away from the communities in which they lived or group homes, according to Ruckman.

“We already have kids placed in other areas we would love to see near families, siblings, the communities they grew up in," Ruckman said. 

Because NYAP in Circuit One is so new, Passaro and Ruckman are in the early stages, which means recruiting families and scheduling the first classes of the 60-hour training course.

“We are going out to Santa Rosa and Pensacola Chambers of Commerce,” Passaro said. “We go out to Rotary groups, professional groups, any business or church that would be interested in having us come out … We are looking to take people to lunch, have one-on-one meetings and answer questions that people are having … and make sure this is the right fit for you and get that process started.”

At 2:30 p.m. June 20, Passaro and Ruckman will be at the Santa Rosa County Chamber of Commerce, 5247 Stewart St., for their ribbon cutting. Those who are curious can come to the ribbon cutting to learn more or they can contact the NYAP team directly.

Contact Ruckman at 380-7041 or email jruckman@nyap.org. Contact Passaro at 380-4679 or email spassaro@nyap.org.

This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Number of foster homes dips