May is National Foster Care Month

Press release from Eliada: 

There is a crisis in our community that gets little attention–the crisis of more children entering the foster care system, than there are loving foster homes to accept them.

Each year in North Carolina there are more than 65,000 reports of child abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
Today, there are nearly 11,000 North Carolina children in Foster Care, over 300 in Buncombe County alone. Eliada receives over 150 requests to place a child in our foster care program every single month. These are requests to house, serve, and promote healing for children entering foster care all over Western North Carolina. But the rate of interested families pursuing foster care pales in comparison.

The children in need range from newborn babies born exposed to substances, to sibling groups hoping not to be separated from one another, to young adults who have never been adopted and who are about to age out of services.

On average nationally, children remain in foster care for nearly two years, and 6% of the children in foster care have been in the system for five or more years. In 2015 alone, 20,000 young people aged out of foster care without permanent family.

In our region, about 50 youth annually age out of care in Buncombe and nearby counties.
Eliada does all it can to defy the national trends and bleak outcomes for youth in foster care. Currently, 50% of the children in Eliada’s Foster Care program are in the process of being adopted–something we celebrate! They are in homes that they will never have to leave.

There is a crying need in our community for safe, stable foster homes.

Foster parents don’t all look the same–just check out our PSA! They have different occupations, different personalities, but are unified in their willingness to open their homes and hearts to vulnerable children and youth in need. Eliada Foster Parents laugh, cry, cheer and grow with our children and they return the gift of childhood.

The month of May is National Foster Care Month. There is no room to remain silent about this crisis. Learn more about Foster Care by attending one of these events:

Join us May 6th at the Asheville Outlets from 11am-4pm for the United for Foster Care event. Eliada will have listening stations set up so you can learn about the foster care experience first hand.
Visit your local Buncombe County library branch this month. There will be Foster Care displays and recommended reading lists related to the Foster Care experience.

Join us at the Fairview Library Monday June 5th from 4:30-6:30pm and Tuesday June 6th from 10:30am-12:30pm for a meet and greet with our Foster Care team.

Visit the new Starbucks location on Patton Avenue.  They are hosting a supply drive from Eliada’s Foster Care Program all month.  Bring in school supplies and toiletries and get discounts on coffee!

Watch out for our new Foster Care PSA throughout the community and at Asheville Brewing Company.

If you have ever considered becoming a foster parent, we encourage you toreach out to our parent recruiters, Kayla Bragg and Mamie Adams to begin this conversation, at fosterachild@eliada.org or 828-254-5356 x381.

Every child deserves a safe and loving environment to grow up in. Come see us this May for National Foster Care Month!