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Wilson County DSS ramps up foster family recruiting




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The Wilson County Department of Social Services is ramping up its foster parent recruiting efforts after the COVID-19 pandemic slowed those efforts over the last few years.

Nikki Mears

“We’ve also seen an increased number of children to enter our foster care system,” DSS Child Welfare Program Manager Nikki Mears said. “We need families to put those kids in. …We need foster homes for all ages, and we need foster homes to cover a variety of things.”



Mears said foster work can take many forms, including fostering to support reunification with the child’s family, fostering to adopt or providing respite care. Respite care can look almost like babysitting, with full-time foster parents needing someone else to watch the kids while they have surgery, travel for a funeral or attend to other business. 

“I think sometimes there’s a misconception that it’s all or nothing with fostering, but there are very different ways that you can foster and you can support,” Mears said.

Wilson County currently has 17 foster homes, and the social services agency is always looking for more.

Lori Walston

“We also very much seek diversity within our foster families,” Mears said. “We need diverse religions and diverse ages and diverse races. And just all kinds of diversity because we bring in children of all types of diversity, and so we want to be able to match people where they’re comfortable.”

Lori Walston, DSS communication manager, said the exact number of foster families needed in the county fluctuates as families age out or adopt so many of the kids they foster that they simply can’t take any more.

“We’ve had great families, and they’ve got huge hearts,” Walston said. “And they adopt those kids when the opportunity presents itself.”

Mears said these are the primary reasons families stop fostering in Wilson County.

FOSTERING TEENS

While foster homes are needed for children of all ages, those willing to take teens are especially needed.

“Teenagers and older children are much harder to place in family foster homes,” Mears said.

Because of this, Wilson County DSS is developing a teen foster parent certification program to help foster families better meet teenagers’ needs.

“We want our foster kids to have things like being able to get their learner’s permit at 15 and drive with their foster parent in their car, or be involved and engaged in extracurricular activities at school, whether that be sports or arts or music or whatever,” Mears said. “And also learn basic life skills like how to cook and how to clean and how to budget, money management, helping them open a bank account, getting a part time job, dating.”

The teen-specific certification is separate from the Trauma Informed Partnering for Safety & Permanence and Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting programs known as TIPS and MAPP, which the state requires for a foster parent to become licensed. 

Wilson County isn’t requiring the certification for families to bring a teen into their foster home, but the local DSS will try to place teens with families who have it before considering others.

The department is working with foster families who currently have teens to develop the program.

Anyone seeking more information about becoming a foster parent can call Wilson County DSS at 252-206-4000 to speak with a social worker.

The department also holds informational Zoom videoconference meetings about foster parenting at noon and 6 p.m. on the last Wednesday of each month. 

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