Community Service: Change a Life Forever
Las Animas County Department of Social Services
 

   Hundreds of thousands of children in this country are in desperate need of our help. They dream of attending the same school year after year, and of making friends - not saying good-bye. Most of all, they dream of having a family who loves them. They are America's waiting children ... waiting to be placed in foster homes or in need of adoption. In America today, more than 550,000 boys and girls are in the foster care system while an estimated 134,000 of them are available for adoption.

Debi "Djai" Jones

Closer to home, the Las Animas County Department of Social Services has implemented a new innovative program. Debi "Djai" Jones was hired last May as a placement resource specialist to implement public awareness programs, and to recruit, educate, and mentor qualified families to become foster or fost/adopt families for local youth. "For some time now Las Animas County has been at an urgency level to find homes to place area children," says Djai. "At present, our youngsters are being sent out of the area, separating them from everything familiar. The primary aim of all child welfare services is to preserve and strengthen the child's own home. However, when biological parents or other community-based resources cannot meet the child's most basic needs for care, protection and love, an alternate placement plan is necessary."

Foster Care is a protective services program for children and families that provides a temporary substitute home and life care for children who are separated from their biological or legal parents due to abuse, neglect, parental illness, death or abandonment. Foster parenting is a commitment to provide a stable family setting while the child is separated from his or her family of origin. If you posses certain life skills such as protect the youth, be a good listener, help the youth grow, be empathetic, encourage positive relationships, discipline in a positive way, be flexible, work as a team, be realistic, love a child, and be able to laugh, you may be an excellent foster parent.

Together we can change a life forever by becoming a foster or adoptive parent. If you'd like further information, contact Debi "Djai" Jones at Las Animas County Department of Social Services.