Santa Clarita Valley residents interested in learning about fostering or adopting a child can attend an informational meeting hosted by the nonprofit Children’s Bureau Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Westfield Valencia Town Center.

More than 21,000 children in Los Angeles County alone are away from their birth parents or in out-of-home care, and agencies like the Children’s Bureau are in need of foster families to help care for these children, according to Bernadette Boylan, foster care and adoption supervisor.

“There is such a gigantic need,” she said. “Children that are in the foster care system need families until they can be reunited with their birth families… We call them ‘resource parents,’ because we feel that while a child is away from their birth family, they need to be with a family that can serve as a resource to them.”

Foster children are usually separated from their parents because of issues like substance abuse, domestic violence or some sort of abuse or neglect, Boylan added.

Children’s Bureau officials ask “resource parents” to protect and nurture the child, meet their developmental needs and address any delays, connect them to relationships intended to last a lifetime and support the child’s relationship with their birth family.

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“The goal is ultimately for the child to return back to their birth family,” Boylan said.

Resource parents are assigned a social worker who is available to them 24 hours a day, seven days a week– as is a foster care and adoption supervisor –and resource parents also receive a monthly stipend and medical coverage for the child.

“To do all this with the Children’s Bureau just works as part of a professional team,” Boylan said. “We make weekly visits to your home and your family, and we help you get the services that the child may need. You’re not on your own. You basically have somebody holding your hand while you parent, support and nurture this child.”

Saturday’s meeting is the first step someone can take in determining if the process, and the Children’s Bureau, is right for them, according to Boylan.

“It’s your opportunity to ask whatever questions you want about fostering or adopting and helping us maybe debunk some of the myths that people may have about it,” she said.

Resource parents are required to be over the age of 21, have sustainable income and the flexibility to meet the needs of the child.

For more information, click here to visit the Children’s Bureau website.