Help support Children in Elko County during Foster Parent Awareness Month
Throughout rural Nevada there is a significant need for foster homes ready to provide quality care crucial to children who have been removed from their homes due to their family being in crisis.
May is Foster Parent Awareness Month and if you have ever considered becoming a foster parent, now is a great time to learn more about the journey. Rural Nevada foster parents have diverse life circumstances and backgrounds; some foster parents are single, some married and others are in a domestic partnership. We also have foster parents who work full time and some who are a stay-at-home parent. Some of our foster parents own their own home, while many of our foster parents do not.
Whatever their circumstance, they all have one thing in common: the desire to help children in their community.
“Foster families provide a nurturing and stable life experience for a child removed from their own home. They help children heal and feel supported,” said Lori Nichols, Foster Care Licensing Supervisor at Nevada Division of Child and Family Services.
The need for foster parents in Elko County and rural Nevada is significant.
Added Nichols, “We have over 400 children in rural Nevada foster care and it’s important for children in care in Elko County remain in Elko County, close to their friends, schools and community.”
Nevada Division of Child and Family Services provides extensive training to help prepare and support rural Nevada foster parents.
“We chose to become foster parents after I saw siblings being removed and found out they were sent to different homes, in different counties, because there
weren’t enough foster homes in our community to keep them together,” said
Jaymee, a rural Nevada foster mom. “We decided to sign up for foster care
training and since we’ve been licensed, we have parented more than 20 children.
It hasn’t always been easy. But it is always rewarding.”
Nevada Division of Child and Family services invites you to learn more on this journey to becoming a safe haven to children entering care in Elko County.
Side bar:
To learn more about the steps to becoming a foster parent, contact 1-888- 423- 2659 or visit http://dcfs.nv.gov/. #RuralNVFosterCare