A call is going out for additional volunteers to help review foster care cases in 22 counties including a number in southeast Kentucky. The citizen foster care review boards consider cases of children placed in the state’s care because of dependency, abuse, or neglect.
Family Services Administrator for the Kentucky Court of Justice, Troy Bell said an overarching goal is to identify barriers faced by children and families. “So, having that initiative and having a person who can advocate for the child and the family in the community, it allows us to break those barriers, so that children can be returned home or adopted in a quicker way,” said Bell.
The Administrative Office of the Courts news release states the aim is to place the children in safe, permanent homes as quickly as possible. All volunteers must complete a six hour training session. “We currently have volunteers operating, so the boards are meeting. It just would mean that we would be able to have more people involved from the community, so that a more enhanced recommendation can be handed to the court,” explained Bell.
Bell added currently there are about 97 hundred children in out-of-home care, compared with about 10,000 this time last year. He said more people are needed on review boards to decrease that number further.
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