Faced with the large number of foster children in need of a home, the Children’s Bureau hosted an informational meeting at College of the Canyons about foster care and how Santa Clarita parents could help children in need.

“We are constantly looking and recruiting for resource parents,” said Melissa Salvador, a foster care and adoption social worker who spoke at the meeting. “It’s basically an open meeting, anybody’s welcome to come.”

The Children’s Bureau works with Department of Child and Family Services which handles the legality in caring for each foster child, Salvador explained, while the bureau works in certifying foster parents, who they call “resource parents.”

According to data from their website, the Children’s Bureau helps approximately 30,000 children and parents around Los Angeles County each year, but the organization is still in need of more support.

“We don’t have enough families to care for the number of children that are coming into foster care,” Salvador said. “We’re just looking for loving, caring, nurturing families of all backgrounds. Whether you’re a single parent, a two parent household, same sex couples, we certify all families.”

Although some foster parents can eventually adopt the children they care for, the bureau’s primary goal is to reunify children with their original family members.

“We want children to remain within their family unit, to be reunified with their family members,” said Salvador.

She explained that parents entering the foster system would have to care for the child under the system at first, and then present their case to a judge in order to adopt a child.

“Families aren’t perfect,” Salvador said, “and so when birth parents or family members get involved with drugs, or have something that happened to them, or don’t have the means to provide for their children, and thus the children are neglected, the court system wants to give them a chance to get on their feet.”

The system is a way for children to be in a safer and more stable environment, while their birth parents look to reorder their lives.

“Our hope is their given enough support, and enough stability to be able to reunite them with their kids,” Salvador said. If that’s not happening then we have them with a family that will continue to provide everything that they need permanently.”

The social worker recommends that parents looking to adopt a child, and have them under permanent “do their homework,” and look at all other options to adopt a child.

Every month, the Children’s Bureau hosts meetings in Santa Clarita, for more information on the organization, click here.

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