Burke and Black Mountain Home recruiting foster families

A shortage of foster homes in Burke County is leaving some children with nowhere to go at night but the offices of the Department of Social Services.

In early August, the county announced a partnership with Black Mountain Home for Children, Youth, and Families aimed at recruiting and training more foster families.

Burke County has only about 10 foster homes licensed through the county but about 220 children in foster care, according to Burke County Department of Social Services Director Korey Fisher-Wellman. The shortage means children are often placed across North Carolina and, sometimes, out of state.

The partnership with Black Mountain Home could begin to change that. The organization is already training three families to become foster families.

Training consists of virtual classes, which are followed by an application and a home inspection to ensure the family meets state requirements.

“Our foster care team works closely with the family to try to make sure there’s a good fit between the youth — the children — and the families that are going to take care of them,” said Loretta Shelton, Black Mountain Home vice president of development and community relations. “We have children in foster care from newborns to all the way up to teenagers. So, the family does get some voice in the age and number of children that they would invite into their home.”

According to Shelton, two of the organization’s biggest goals are spreading awareness of the need for foster families in the county and changing the culture of local churches to support families who want to foster.

Originally established as an orphanage in 1904, Black Mountain Home is a “Christ-centric” nonprofit based in Black Mountain, said Shelton. However, she reiterated that families don’t have to adhere to a specific belief or denomination to get involved.

“Fostering is a ministry and there are days that it can be hard,” Shelton said, explaining that the churches can help recruit families from their congregations. “... We just know there are enough churches in Burke County that if each one had one or two families that would foster, this problem could be resolved pretty quickly.”

Black Mountain Home also partners with Anuvia Prevention and Recovery Center, keeping a clinician embedded in Black Mountain Home’s offices to provide mental health and substance abuse services to youth and their families.

Shelton said struggles with mental health and the opioid epidemic are big components of why many children end up in foster care.

“Children who are neglected or abused or removed from their biological families — that is very traumatic,” Shelton said. “To be in foster care and then not have a placement in your home county … and then separated from your local community that’s familiar — your school that you’re used to going to (and) your extended family — it just adds another layer of hardship and trauma to children.”

The director of DSS explained that, at the end of the day, it boils down to getting families back together.

“Kids do better when they’re with their families,” Fisher-Wellman said. “We want to be able to strengthen families and keep kids with their families. … If we increase services available to parents, and if a kid does have to enter foster care, then hopefully we can reunify them more quickly.”

The resources provided by Black Mountain Home and its partnership with Anuvia bridge some of the gaps in care.

“When we get involved with a family, typically they have a case plan — these things we need them to work on,” Fisher-Wellman said. “This gives people sort of a road map to get their needs met and make sure they can address their own mental health needs or substance abuse needs and get the things they need so that they can either keep their children in their home or be reunited with their family.”

Fisher-Wellman explained that the county hopes the number of foster homes will grow to 15 or 20 by next year, so that in the meantime, children can stay nearby.

“People heal through connection, so if a kid is having a rough time and his foster parent sits with them through that storm to come out the other side — that’s beneficial,” the director said.