| A child comes to the attention of our agency by referrals from many sources. Every effort is made to work with the family to keep the child at home. However in some cases, the child must be separated from his or her family until the family can stabilize. Foster care provides children with a temporary home until the child can be safely reunited with his or her family. When a court decides children cannot safely return home, an adoptive home offers them a permanent, stable, loving family. When children are placed in foster care or adoption, care givers are responsible for meeting the children’s basic needs. Foster placements and most adoptive placements are eligible for financial support from the agency to assure the needs of these children are met. Foster homes are temporary places to stay, while adoptive homes are forever. However, both must be loving and safe environments where children can learn to give and receive love, and develop to their full potential. Many foster children and adopted children have grown to be successful citizens, parents, employees and community leaders. They have reached success because their foster and adoptive parents believed in their potential and did not give up, even when things got tough. We need parents who have faith in themselves and in children, who believe they can make a difference in a child’s life, who are willing to take a chance and who are willing to learn. Parenting is a tough job. It can take a while to see the rewards, but there is nothing more satisfying than seeing those rewards. There is no other endeavor with such long lasting effects.
In 2001, 64 children left their families.
Of those 64 children, 23 were a part of sibling groups:
1 group of 4 children
3 groups of 3 children
5 groups of 2 children
2 teen mothers with their infants
The childrens’ ages were as follows:
17 children were aged 2 and under
3 children were between the ages of 3 and 6
11 children were between the ages of 7 and 10
8 children were between the ages of 11 and 13
25 children were between the ages of 14 and 18
The types of placements that were made were:
33 to agency foster homes
9 to relatives
13 to theraputic foster homes
6 to group homes
2 to residential placement
1 to a hospital
The locations of the agency foster homes were:
11 were in counties other than Athens
35 were within Athens County:
7 homes were in Alexander school district
12 homes were in Athens school district
8 homes were in Federal Hocking school district
2 homes were in Nelsonville school district
6 homes were in Trimble school district
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