On any given day, there are about 3,400 children living in Clark County’s foster care system. There are so many children, that housing them all has become an ongoing concern in Southern Nevada.
Officials say around 300 homes are still needed. And while the reasons are many – parental drug use, incarceration, abuse, neglect or death – one thing remains clear the issue is “critical.”
“We are always looking for homes,” said Allyson Manumaleuna, Deputy Director of the Clark County Department of Family Services. “We want to have a home that they can go to immediately versus coming to our Child Haven campus, having to sit there and wait for us to find a home, that homes are readily available for kids to be welcomed into.”
Across the state, child welfare services have struggled to find housing for foster youth. KFF Health News, formerly Kaiser Health, reported earlier this year that some children in Elko County were temporarily housed in casinos.
Part of the problem with recruitment efforts is that there is a lot of confusion about who is allowed to house children. For the most part, Manumaleuna said are most focused on whether potential parents can provide a healthy environment for kids to heal, learn and grow. That’s why Manumaleuna said the most important requirement for families is empathy.
“You need to have an understanding heart,” Manumaleuna said. “You need to have compassion, stability, structure, to understand that their behavior sometimes [is] not something they want to do. It's something that comes out because of how they're raised or reacting to the situation.”
Another concern some families voice is a fear of being separated from a child who they’ve come to love.
In the past the country’s foster system, overall, was not as concerned with family reunification as an end goal. That’s changed in recent years. Now, foster care is treated as a last resort. If a parent loses their rights, officials go through steps to make sure children are housed with a family member or someone within the child’s community of birth.
According to Manumaleuna, the department trains potential foster parents on a lot of what to expect throughout a child’s stay in their home.
“A lot of times as parents are going through the system of getting back on track [and] trying to regain custody of their kids,” said Manumaleuna. “There are hurdles and barriers that come before them, so our goal is for kids to return home. Sometimes it happens. A lot of times it doesn't.”
Lynne Jasames was one of those kids who did not reunite with her birth family. Jasames, who now works as a recruiter for the Clark County Department of Family Services, owes much of who she is today to a foster family who took her in and supported her as into young adulthood, even after she aged out of the system.
“I'm where I am today because of a foster parent when she didn't counsel me out,” said Jasames. “That's what our teens need.”
Of course, no one is expected to know everything about being a good foster parent. That takes years of experience, but perspective foster families are expected to undergo training.
Jasames, who has lived in and around the foster care system most of her life, it’s dramatically improved results for families.
“The resources and opportunities, the training opportunities, the information that's available now; it just wasn't available back then.”
Part of that training also underlines the importance of good mental health. Many children entering the foster care system are traumatized. That can lead to increased stress for both the children and their caregivers.
According to Jasames, perspective parents learn quickly that they must have support.
“We have foster parents now who start with a support system,” she said. “We teach them in the training that, right here in this room, you guys should all leave here connected. This is where your support system starts.”
One foster dad who has years of experience is Alexander Bernal. Bernal began working with children as a basketball coach. Through that experience he realized there was a need to work with young men who needed a father figure.
Although he admits the process isn’t always easy, it helps to start with clear, open and honest communication.
“I have to learn how to teach them,” said Bernal. “I have to sit down and talk with them. I don't talk at them. I don't talk down to them because I was that kid. So, I sit there. ‘Okay, man, tell me about it. Why did you do it? Is this a problem?”
“I think so much, people are focused more on the negative,” Bernal continued. “We need to put more out there on the positive. I can’t tell you how many foster youths that have gone off to college, and I got some who worked for the state and got their degrees. I got a couple of them who didn't make it, who passed away, or who went to jail. But I’ll say 80% of my kids, [who went] into my home, are all productive people in the community.”
His response is simple when asked why he continues to work with teens.
“Every one of them is my son,” he said.
Guests: Allyson Manumaleuna; supervisor for foster care recruitment and training, Clark County Department of Family Services; Lynne Jasames, foster care recruiter, Clark County Department of Family Services; Alexander Bernal, foster parent
