Somerset County kids in need of foster homes have doubled since 2016. Here's how to help.

When Lydia Shaffer and her husband, Kirby, started their family, she knew that she wanted them to become foster parents as well.

“My parents were foster parents when I was growing up, so I had lots of kids in and out of my home,” she said. “I knew as a teenager that this was something I wanted to do.”

Since 2019, the Shaffers and their three biological children have opened their hearts and home to care for children in foster care in Somerset County.

Lydia Shaffer also serves as the Somerset County coordinator for the Pennsylvania Orphan Care Alliance, a Christian organization that began in 2008 in Centre County. The alliance has recently grown to operate in four counties, including Somerset — which has seen an increasing need for foster families.

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Who is in foster care?

According to Laurie Deist, a caseworker with Somerset County Children and Youth Services, the number of local children under 18 years of age who need foster care has nearly doubled within the last five years.

In 2016, 93 Somerset County children were in need of foster care. That number rose to approximately 150 in 2021.

Deist and Kristin Walters, foster care/permanency director at the Children’s Aid Home in Somerset, both say that adult substance abuse is the underlying reason for the increase in foster care services in the county.

“I think the biggest contributor is the drug epidemic and how it just continues to expand in our area,” Deist said. “In 2016 it was primarily an opiate epidemic, but in the last couple of years, it has become both an opiate and methamphetamine abuse (issue). We as a system are only (now) becoming more knowledgeable about what that looks like.”

Walters added: “I think that the opioid epidemic is the leading cause, and then you have other factors (such as neglect or abuse) that link to that.”

Of the approximately 150 Somerset County children in foster care, almost half (48%) are younger than 6 years of age, Deist said. Another 18% are teens from 15 to 17 years old. Some of these foster children live with relatives, some are with local foster families or they live in group home settings within the county, such as the Children’s Aid Home.

When there isn’t a local foster family available to take them in, some children must be placed in foster care outside of Somerset County. Social workers have an especially challenging time finding homes for teenagers and sibling groups of young children.

“That’s an issue across the commonwealth,” Deist said. “When we have sibling groups that we need to have placed, we have to call three, four, five, six or seven agencies and we’re not finding families that are able to keep them together. It’s so disheartening.

“We will drive outside of the county to keep them together before we will separate them into (different) homes. We just don’t want to do that — and we don’t want to have to take kids away from their community.”

Families who are willing to foster children on a temporary basis are also needed.

“Three times in the last month, we had teenagers that we did not have a place for, so we had to pay staff to come in and sit with them,” Deist said. “We need families that will commit to two or three or four days — that’s it — that’s what we need until we can get (the child) where they are going.”

How to become a foster parent

The goal of the Pennsylvania Orphan Care Alliance is to reach out to churches, organizations and individuals in each area to recruit foster families and build “care communities,” or teams of volunteers, who are willing to offer their time, resources and abilities to help local foster families.

“I often hear people say, ‘I could never do that (be a foster parent) because I couldn’t give them back,’” Shaffer said. “But I think, to provide stability and structure for the time that we can, is way more important than the grief I might feel when they leave. I can handle that (emotion) … it’s more important they have (stability). If they didn’t have that, what would be the consequences?”

To bring these groups of people together, the Pennsylvania Orphan Care Alliance is hosting a “Have a Heart for Children” awareness event and fundraiser at 6:30 p.m. March 1 at the Bakersville banquet hall, located 2341 W. Bakersville Edie Road in Somerset.

There is no cost to attend, but registration is requested to confirm seating. For more information and to register for the event, go to paorphancarealliance.org and click on the event notice.

The event also includes a fundraising appeal to help with administrative costs for the Somerset County program, as well as hosting seminars and providing resource materials for local foster families and the various care communities.

“We (foster families) can’t do this by ourselves,” Shaffer said. “We need a support system. It’s so important.”

What are 'care communities?'

To support foster families in Somerset County, Shaffer and the Pennsylvania Orphan Care Alliance plan to organize “care communities,” or teams of four to eight volunteers, who offer a few hours a week to a foster family for at least one year.

Depending on a foster family’s needs, a care team may commit to cook and deliver a meal once a week to the foster family. Team members also may, for example, help with transportation to afterschool activities, assist the family with laundry or yard work, or give afterschool care to children of foster parents who work.

This is what Kate and Brian Hofer did for a local foster family last fall.

The Hofers, who live in Hidden Valley, adopted their two children, now ages 7 and 4, after nearly three years of caring for them as foster parents.

Now they try to help other foster families by providing short-term care for a foster child or children when the foster parents can’t be present.

“We gave respite care for several teens last fall,” Kate Hofer said. “We did afterschool care until their foster parents came home from work. Doing afterschool care fills in gaps because otherwise, that family would not have been able to foster those kids. We had such a wonderful experience doing that.”

A foster family might need respite care for a few hours, a weekend or perhaps a week if the foster family has plans to take a vacation.

“While foster parenting comes with challenges, the rewards we’ve experienced have been greater,” Hofer said. “They have changed our lives as much as we have changed theirs. They brought us so much joy, and providing them with a sense of stability can set them up for success.”

Respite care critical in foster system

According to Shaffer and the Pennsylvania Orphan Care Alliance, 50% of foster families who have no external support stop being foster families after one year. But with assistance from other foster families or a care community, 90% of foster families are still fostering children after two years.

To coordinate that support, Shaffer and the Pennsylvania Orphan Care Alliance plan to connect with and identify the needs of Somerset County’s foster families, then reach out to the local care community network to help meet those needs.

“What I would like families to know is, if you don’t feel like you can make that day-to-day commitment, we still need help,” Deist said. “Foster families can be supported by other families through this Pennsylvania Orphan Care Alliance.”

Walters added: “As the Orphan Care Alliance continues to grow and we get more families approved as resource families, we’re able to keep our kids in Somerset County — and I know that doesn’t always happen right now. The more we can bring awareness and some support and get more families on board, we can keep our kids local.”

Anitta and Brian Trimpey, of Markleton, were foster parents for 18 years and adopted five of their seven children from the foster care system. They have also provided respite care for other foster families.

“It’s extremely important (for foster families) to have a good support system,” Anitta Trimpey said. “Someone who is standing behind you, encouraging you. The kids who come to us have such big needs and we try to accommodate those needs. Sometimes we just need some extra help.

“Anyone who would be willing to help, even in a small gesture … there are so many opportunities where people would be able to help.”

And as a care community of people work together to help foster families succeed, they gain a better understanding of what foster care is all about and who foster parents really are.

“When these care communities start seeing what the families are doing — and that they’re not superheroes, they’re everyday people — then some of those people may sign on to become a resource family,” Walters said.

Deist added: “When you get to know the child and see what the family is doing, (the idea of fostering) becomes much more realistic. It’s not something you’re imagining – you’re seeing it right in front of you.

“In reality, most of the foster families I’ve met are just ordinary people doing extraordinary things.”

For more information on the Pennsylvania Orphan Care Alliance, go to paorphancarealliance.org or contact Shaffer at lydia@ccoca.org.

Anyone who is interested in becoming a foster parent can contact Deist at 814-445-1609, 814-521-5891 or deistl@co.somerset.pa.us, or Walters at 814-443-1637.

This article originally appeared on The Daily American: How to become a foster parent in Somerset County, PA