Foster Family Fair coming to Jackson September 10 amid need for homes
JACKSON, Tenn. — The Madison County Foster Parent Association is hosting a foster family fair with a variety of members and associations involved in the community to support potential and current foster parents.
*September 10th 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Renae Adelsberger, President of the Madison County Foster Parent Association, shares the need for this fair.
“We have right around 73 children in foster care, here in Madison County alone, and we don’t have enough homes,” Adelsberger said. “One of our goals is to have enough parents in every county, especially here in Madison County, so that when a child does have to be removed, they at least get to stay in their own city.”
Crystal Perry, Recruitment Team Leader with Omni Visions, informs us of specific families that could be beneficial to help in the needs of the children.
“We really have a need for Hispanic families, for families within the LGBTQ community. We need families that will take teenagers, that will take sibling groups as well,” Perry said. “So at least we can try to place them with a family that can understand their language. That in itself brings a sense of security, until they are able to reunite back with their families.”
Foster parents Ryan and Alexis Gibbons share their definition of fostering a child.
“Being a foster parent is just having your home open and available for kids, who for some reason or another can’t be with their birth parents at the time,” Ryan Gibbons said.
Adelsberger spoke to the experience children may encounter when facing the foster care system.
“One of the things that’s really hard for a child is they’re quite often picked up at a time that they’re not expecting it,” Adelsberger said. “Quite often a child is removed from their parent’s care when they’re at school, or in the middle of the night.”
The Gibbons are very familiar with this unexpected time, as they were called on to foster a preemie baby who was the NICU, and they did not have the items that were needed to take care of her. This was the solution they found:
“Got in contact with our provider and they said, ‘Here is Renae at the foster closet, call her, we will see if they have anything for you.’ Because I had nothing for a preemie newborn,” Alexis Gibbons said. “And so Renae put an Amazon Wishlist on the Facebook page. And by that night, everything had been bought.”
Adelsberger shares her own story of how fostering her first child led to the restart up of the Madison County Foster Parent Association.
“We needed to be able to provide for her, we needed to have the uniforms in the right color, as she started a new school, we needed to make her feel like she was seen, and that she was loved,” said Adelsberger. “And this is where the idea of the bringing the foster association back came from.”
The Foster Family Fair will be held on September 10, from 10 a.m. to noon at Northside Church, located at 2571 North Highland.
Foster parents are a needed part of this community, but you can also help without becoming a foster parent. To get involved and find out more information, click here.
For more news in the Jackson area, click here.
