Families 4 Families shares foster care information

Jodi York, a recruiter from the non-profit organization Families 4 Families (F4F), held an information session at Eatonton’s Crossroads Baptist Church March 19, for people interested in becoming foster parents.

She explained the requirements prospective foster parents have to meet, what support her agency may provide, and answered questions from the audience.

“We are like a subcontractor for DFCS,” York explained. “DFCS has total control over taking the children from their parents and putting them back, but they call us when they have a placement and, if we have a family, we place the child in it.”

According to the Georgia Department of Human Services website (dhs.georgia.gov), for the first quarter this year, 10,932 kids ages 0 to 17 were in foster care throughout the state, including 23 in Putnam County, 40 in Greene, 24 in Morgan, and 82 in Baldwin. Statewide, 1,563 kids are available for adoption, including three in Putnam, four each in Greene and Morgan, and 20 in Baldwin County.

Families 4 Families was founded in 2017. As of Dec. 31, 2022, they had completed a total of 96 adoptions and placed 734 children in foster care, 174 of which came last year.

“We fostered and adopted two little girls out of foster care, and that was our entrance into foster care and Families 4 Families,” F4F founder Wayne Naugle recalled. In addition to raising five biological children, Naugle and his wife Kelli have cared for two sisters, now turning 10 and 11, since birth.

York said the main advantage of working with Families 4 Families is the support factor. Support includes providing monthly date nights for participating foster families when parents can drop their foster and biological children off and have a few hours to themselves.

“We have movies and games for the kids to do while the parents are gone,” she said. There also are quarterly evenings of fun activities for the foster and biological children of participating foster families, as well as support groups for foster moms and dads, a support group for adoptive moms, and a group for foster, adopted, and biological students aged 10 to 17.

F4F also offers continuing education units (CEU) training, which according to state police, foster parents have to complete at least 15 hours a year to maintain their foster home license.

CEU classes are child-and-family-specific, York said, such as focusing on how to deal with feeding tubes, wheelchairs, behavior, or reactive attachment disorder.

“Once a year, we do an event for the whole community,” she added. “We help foster families to throw big birthday parties. Last summer, we did birthday bags. We do Christmas parties. We bring our employees that have been approved by DFCS.”

Naugle said that for several reasons, F4F also works only through churches.

“Number one is that they provide a lot of support services for our families. We hold a 90-percent retention rate after the first year, and that's because of the services that we provide our families with,” he said.

“The second reason is that we are a faith-based agency. Once we get the church on board, we find families that want to foster in that church. Then we come behind them and show how to support those families,” York added.

“Do it for the love of a child,” counseled Elvis Pressley, a father of three and member of Crossroads Baptist Church, who has experience raising two foster kids in his home. “Try to give these children a mom or dad that they don't have at that moment. That'd the biggest thing.”

With headquarters in Loganville, Families 4 Families also maintains offices in Griffin, Statesboro, Dublin, Gainesville, and Augusta.

Since September 2022, F4F has involved eight church partners in Lake Country. Another information session will be held Tuesday, April 11, beginning at 6 p.m., at Lake Country Baptist Church (1259 Crooked Creek Rd., Eatonton). For more information visit families4families.cc.