Volunteers are needed in 41 Kentucky counties by Citizen Foster Care Review Boards to make a difference in the lives of children in foster care and others in out-of-home care.
Volunteers review cases of children placed in care because of dependency, neglect, or abuse. The aim is to ensure they are placed in safe, permanent homes as quickly as possible. State Foster Care Board Chair Tom Stevenson says there are some paper-only reviews while others involve meeting with caseworkers and those trying to place the children.
“We’re part of the administrative office of the courts. We have no ties to the agencies that foster the children. We’re just there in an oversight position. We check and see what we think and how we think things are being done and we want to see the children have permanence in a reasonable period of time.”
Stevenson says all volunteers must complete a 6-hour initial training course. The retired police officer says helping the children is rewarding and to make a difference in a child’s life means the world to him. He says in Madison County alone in 2017, 228 cases were reviewed.
The counties in need of volunteers are Bath, Boyd, Bracken, Bullitt, Campbell, Carroll, Carter, Clark, Elliott, Fayette, Fleming, Floyd, Grant, Greenup, Harrison, Henry, Jefferson, Jessamine, Johnson, Kenton, Laurel, Lawrence, Lewis, Magoffin, Marion, Martin, Mason, Menifee, Montgomery, Morgan, Nicholas, Pendleton, Perry, Pike, Robertson, Rowan, Russell, Trimble, Washington, Wayne and Woodford. Volunteers are not required to live in the counties in which they volunteer.
To get more information and apply to be a volunteer, visit the CFCRB web page on the Kentucky Court of Justice website at https://courts.ky.gov/courtprograms/cfcrb/Pages/default.aspx.
