By Mark Squibb
Newfoundland and Labrador Foster Families Executive Director Kelly Hodder, along with daughter Elizabeth Dawe, joined Mount Pearl council in chambers recently to help proclaim Foster Family Month.
In this province, there are over 900 children in the foster care system, and about 550 foster families – although that latter number has taken a hit in recent years.
“Unfortunately, we have seen a decrease in the number of foster homes in this province, specifically since COVID,” said Hodder. “I would consider us to be at a crisis point. So, that is a large part of the work that we do at the association. We really need to raise awareness about the need for more homes. We do a lot of advocacy work to improve what circumstances are like for the foster families that we have. And we want to improve recruitment and retention, because ultimately when we have fewer homes, we see the impacts it has on the children. We have kids in rural Newfoundland and Labrador who came into care, and they have to leave their communities because there’s no foster homes in their communities. For children in Labrador, that means being out on a plane and flown to another part of Labrador or being flown down here to the island and being placed in a non-Indigenous foster home. It means children have to leave their schools, their friends, their relatives, their pets, their everything, and go to a stange place in order to be kept safe.”
Hodder was pleased to report that the association has a number of foster families in Mount Pearl, though she hopes even more residents will consider fostering.
“When children are in an unsafe situation and go into a foster home, they’re given an opportunity for stability, for love, for nurturing, and, perhaps maybe to feel safe for the first time in their lives,” said Hodder. “So, it’s very important work that their doing. It’s very challenging work, but we need them, and we need more of them.”
One of the biggest barriers, said Hodder, is the rising costs associated with fostering.
“Foster care compensation rates haven’t increased since 2012, and of course we know inflation has increased dramatically since then,” said Hodder. “So, I’ve been trying to hold the government’s feet to the fire on that. And with the new government incoming I plan on continuing that work (to say) Foster parents need funds to do the work they do. They’re not in it for the money, but you need money to do it. It’s not cheap.”
Her daughter Elizabeth, meanwhile, has inherited four cousins through foster care – Kylin, Kyrie, Greyson, and Michael.