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The Challenge:
Maryland lost more than 1,000 family foster homes between 2003 and 2007. As a result, many children who would do better in family settings are living in group homes. While group care is appropriate in some cases, Maryland has become overly reliant on these placements in recent years.
The Commitment:
DHR’s Place Matters initiative operates under our belief that nothing matters more to a child than a place to call home. Place Matters involves better in-home services, reducing our reliance on group homes, better accountability standards, using proven practices to improve child welfare and increasing the number of foster homes.
Foster parents and caseworkers are the twin pillars of our child welfare system. While we work to reunite children safely with their birth parents or find loving adoptive homes, we are committed to giving our foster parents the resources they need to serve our children. We provide several supports to foster parents. They include training, child care assistance, respite care, and an increased monthly stipend.
The Need:
Maryland needs caring adults to serve children. They must be able to providing a nurturing environment for children who have been abused or neglected and need a haven until they can go to a permanent home. Many people adopt their foster children, and we have foster-adopt programs. Foster care, however, is temporary. Children are expected to stay in care only for a short time. The State of Maryland is committed to decreasing the amount of time children spend in foster care and to place children in close
proximity to family members and their communities.
What You Can Do:
Make a difference in the life of a child by becoming one of the 1,000. Call Maryland’s toll-free foster care line at 1-888-MDKIDS2 (1-888-635-4372) or call the Department of Social Services in your community.
web posted: February 20, 2008
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