PHOENIX — There’s a call from the Department of Child Safety for more adults to step up and make a difference in a child’s life. They are looking for more than 1,000 people to sign on as foster parents, saying there is a huge need to place kids in diverse households that best reflect their culture.
Two Valley women have changed lives as foster moms.
Elisia Manuel was volunteering at a treatment center over a decade ago when she first felt the call.
“I fell in love with some little guys, and they were brothers. They were one and under one years old, they were two little ones, and I just decided to take the leap of faith and become a foster parent,” Elisia Manuel, of Casa Grande, said.
Mia Stewart got a call, informing her that her two little nephews needed a safe home.
“I took in my nephews at that time, seven and eight,” Stewart said. “They've been with me for over 10 years. So that experience from kinship, then I became a foster parent, and after becoming a foster parent, then I adopted them.”
Along with providing a safe haven, both women share another goal: ensuring kids in foster homes stay connected to their culture.
“It's extremely important to be able to walk into the home and see artifacts, be able to have an aroma of the artifacts that represent someone that's culturally based to you, and it enormously lessened their uncertainty of coming into a new environment,” Stewart said.
However, the Department of Child Safety says that it can be a challenge.
According to DCS, 65 percent of kids in foster care are Black, Latino, or Native American, but only 43 percent of foster homes reflect those same cultural backgrounds.
“Entering foster care is traumatizing in itself,” Tanya Abdellatif, DCS Assistant Director of Foster Care, said. “What we're trying to do is match that population of children in foster care with the foster families that they're placed with. So we're actively recruiting for African American, Native American, but truthfully, all families who can honor a child’s culture and keep them connected to that.
DCS says it needs 1,000 diverse families to step up across the state, saying this could help get the 1,400 kids living in group homes into family settings.
“The need is huge,” Stewart said. “There's children out there that are waiting constantly for a home of like-minded people, where they can walk in the door and see them represented in the door.”
Manuel tries to help kids in care stay connected to culture through her non-profit, Three Precious Miracles, hosting events like a ribbon skirt workshop or a class on the importance of hair. She says these are the kinds of things she’s also done with all seven foster kids she has had in her care.
“We go to traditional events, activities,” Manuel said. “I do a lot of Native American beadwork. So they get to see that we have traditional medicines, so they smell that. The food that we have, they taste that.”
Steps to ease trauma that others can take, too.
“There's families that can be single, married, or if you're a seasoned adult, that's an empty nester and you desire to provide support, come on out and help,” Stewart said.
The reward, these moms say, is twofold.
“When you decide to take on this beautiful blessing that we're going to make a difference together, I know for myself, it was hard for me, but I'm so thankful, and I wouldn't change anything,” Manuel said.
If you think becoming a foster parent might be a fit for you, visit the DCS website.
