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Fostering children in time for the holidays
Danielle Zulkosky reports.
TAMPA, Fla. - Fostering Hope Florida wants to see more people step up to support children in foster care around the holidays, but that journey starts now.
What we know:
The biggest way to support foster youth is to open your home to a child, sibling group or teen. Gloria West Lawson, the founder of Fostering Hope Florida, said if a potential foster parent starts the process now, they could have their certification done in time to take a child around Christmas.
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"The obvious need is gifts at Christmas time, but the less than apparent need is the need for homes for our kids," West Lawson said.
Toys and clothes are another need around the holidays to make sure every kid has something to open up come Christmas morning.
"We do a lot of toy drives, we do a lot of stuff trying to get people to donate stuff, especially for teenagers," West Lawson said. "And then, we try to get all that distributed by Christmas time."
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What you can do:
Not everyone is prepared to start fostering, but West Lawson said you can still help the foster care community. Even something as small as bringing dinner or helping at a friend's house could be the difference for one family.
"Be the backup person," West Lawson said. "We could always get people background screened, and if they're background screened for a particular household, then they could pick kids up at school, they could be there as a babysitter."
West Lawson supports those in foster care with her organization Fostering Hope Florida. She runs large homes to keep siblings together, supports young adults as they age out of the system and runs two closets to provide free clothing to foster families.
She also helps foster parents navigate a difficult system.
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"They can't be the first people to go under the bus when something goes wrong. We have to support them as a community, you know, wrap around services around them and value what they do," West Lawson said.
West Lawson said the foster care system has significantly improved in the Tampa Bay area over the last three years. She hopes it gets better this holiday season as more people step up to help.
The Source: The information in this story comes from interviews with Gloria West Lawson, the founder of Fostering Hope Florida.