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Looking for parents for children without

The number of children needing foster care is greater than the number of foster homes. Social service agencies are constantly trying to narrow the gap.

By TAMARA EL-KHOURY
Published November 29, 2005

	[Times photos: Kathleen Flynn]
	Lorraine Sullivan-Thompson hugs her son Michael Thompson, 7, at their home Wednesday. She had been seeking a girl but ended up opening her home to three half-brothers.
	Ken Thompson reads to his sons, from left, Jesse, 7, Jon Walter, 3, Michael, 7, and Jimmy, 6, at their Palm Harbor home Wednesday. Thompson and his wife, who previously adopted Jesse, adopted the other three boys Nov. 18.
	Jon Walter Thompson, 3, plays with his father Ken at home Wednesday. Families like the Thompsons meet a critical need for the Tampa Bay area.

Her plan was to bring home a sister for her adopted son Jesse.

But that changed when the social worker at Everyday Blessings learned that Lorraine Sullivan-Thompson had a four-bedroom house.

Instead of a sister, Jesse, 7, wound up with three brothers.

For social workers, finding someone like Sullivan-Thompson helps meet a critical need. That's because the Tampa Bay area has more foster children than families ready to take them in.

Last month, there were 1,300 kids in Pinellas and Pasco counties living in licensed foster care. Those kids were spread out among 287 foster homes, as well as in group homes, emergency shelters and other facilities, according to the Safe Children Coalition, which places foster children in homes.

The coalition's goal is to have 500 foster homes in Pinellas and Pasco for children who have been removed from homes where they were abused or neglected.

Not having enough foster homes sometimes means scrambling to find a temporary bed in a residential institutional facility or group home for a child who has nowhere else to go. Then, the next day, doing it again.

"We don't have a waiting list," said Jeff Rainey, the chief executive officer of Hillsborough Kids, the lead agency for community-based care in Hillsborough County. "When a kid is in danger or when a child is at risk of being in a home with their parent or guardian we can't say we'll come back in a week."

That's why kids at risk need people like Sullivan-Thompson, social workers say.

When Sullivan-Thompson visited a group home for about 30 foster children two years ago, the social worker there told her about the three half-brothers. The parental rights of the boys' parents were expected to be terminated. Social services organizations have a hard time keeping siblings together, she told her.

Sullivan-Thompson, a nurse practitioner who lives in Palm Harbor, was hesitant. She wanted to adopt one girl but she agreed to a tour of the grounds.

The social worker pointed out the brothers: There was Michael, now 7, coming off the school bus wearing a Spider-Man shirt and backpack just like the one Jesse wore that day. Jimmy, now 6, zipped off the Head Start bus and up the tallest tree in the yard.

"That's the wild one," the social worker said. "He has no fear."

Then there was little Jon Walter, now 3.

He looked at Sullivan-Thompson, his brown eyes flooded with tears and his arms raised.

She picked him up.

He stopped crying.

"Do you want to call your husband now?" the social worker asked.

This month, Oldsmar residents protested a proposed group home for six foster kids in their neighborhood on Shore Drive. Opponents gave the Oldsmar City Council a petition, saying they feared for the safety of their children.

Gift of Life, the social services organization running the home, said the kids would be under 24-hour supervision by trained staff.

"Foster children have foster parents. This is not a foster home," said Sandy Sears, a Shore Drive resident and vocal opponent of the home. "I would love to see foster parents in that home."

So would Lee Scharrer, the executive director of Gift of Life. The reality is that Pinellas County, like much of the country, has a huge deficit in families willing to open their homes to foster children.

"On any given night there are multiple children anywhere in the state who don't have a place to stay or are bouncing from home to home because they don't have a permanent place to stay," Scharrer said.

Sometimes, he said, small group homes like the one in Oldsmar are the best alternative.

The need for foster families ebbs and flows depending on the economy and other factors, said Linda Spears, vice president of the Child Welfare League of America, a national association of more than 900 nonprofit public and private child assistance agencies.

Foster families also lack the support they need to care for children who have been abused or neglected, Spears said.

"A lot of communities find themselves in this boat where you don't have the preventive sources to strengthen families so kids don't get abused and neglected in the first place," Spears said.

Because most foster kids have been taken from their parents because of abuse or neglect, they may be difficult to care for, Spears said. Finding a home for teenagers is especially difficult. Social service organizations also try to prevent siblings, like the Thompson boys, from being broken up.

Depending on whether families need a break or, like Sullivan-Thompson and her husband, choose to adopt their kids, open foster homes close every month. For example, four foster homes opened in Pinellas and Pasco counties last month. But five closed.

The situation in neighboring Hillsborough isn't any better, said Rainey, the CEO of Hillsborough Kids.

Hillsborough County has about 1,400 kids in licensed care and 480 foster homes. It needs about 200 more homes, Rainey said.

Prospective foster parents have to complete 30 hours of a state-mandated curriculum on specialized parenting training. They must have background checks and open their homes and financial books to licensing specialists who do two home visits and write a home study. The process takes three to six months, said Laurallyn Segur, assistant director of licensing and placement for the Safe Children Coalition.

Although the process is tedious and difficult, the rewards are worth it, said Lorraine Sullivan-Thompson.

"We need to give them a second chance at what has been robbed from them," she said of her boys, who were taken out of a physically abusive home.

After two years in their care as foster children, Sullivan-Thompson and her husband, Ken Thompson, adopted the three boys on Nov. 18, National Adoption Day.

In Hawaiian shirts and khaki shorts the boys took on new first names and the last name Thompson. Then they left for Disney World.

Michael nodded when asked if anything is different now that he has officially been adopted by the Thompsons. What?

"We're a big family," he said.

If you're interested in learning more about foster parenting in Pasco or Pinellas counties call the Safe Children Coalition toll-free at 1-866-661-5656. Hillsborough residents can call Hillsborough Kids at (813) 643-5437.

[Last modified November 29, 2005, 06:56:03]