Fairmont organization strives to help needy children - WVPubcast.org

November?20,?2012?? November is National Adoption Awareness Month. One organization in Fairmont is dedicated to helping children find homes if the child isn?t able to be reunited with his or her parents.

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Try Again Homes works to help children find nurturing homes, either part-time, or full-time.

They have to recruit, and then train foster families that want to take children.

To adopt a child, a family must have been involved in foster care with that child for at least six months.

According to the Federal Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting system, more than 4,000 children in West Virginia were in foster care at the end of 2010.

Amanda Brown, the foster family recruiter at Try Again Homes, says it?s her job to get families interested in adopting children.

"We find families for kids who need families. I want to find good loving, committed families who will accept children into their home," said Brown.

"I go out to different festivals, to try to draw people in, to let them know who we are. We go to different counties just to let people know, we do lots of things."

There are several cases of children in foster care that come from turbulent home environments.

Chrissy Pownell is a home finder and an adoption worker at Try Again Homes.

She says the agency gets referrals from the Department of Health and Human Resources, when the DHHR takes a child away from their parents.

"We get a lot of kids in care lately, because of parental substance abuse. That?s the big reason why we are getting kids into care, mostly due to neglect," Pownell said.

"We do get some that have been physically abused, and we do get some that have been sexually abused. They come into care with lots of different reactions and behaviors. A lot of times they haven?t had the support and proper care, so they act out."

Children up to the age of 18 are accepted by Try Again Homes, for placement in foster care.

Pownell has worked with Try Again for 10 years, and says the goal is to get children reunited with their parents, after changes are implemented.

She says even when that reunion isn?t possible, good outcomes are still achievable.

"It?s a joy when the kids get to go home, when you know their families have made the proper changes. But it?s also nice to see when that doesn?t happen; it?s nice to see that they can stay with their families that they have been with, maybe a year or two, sometimes more," said Pownell.

"It?s a joy to see them be able to return home, but it?s also a joy to see them adopted with their foster family, if they aren?t able to do that."??

Amanda Brown says the toughest challenge agencies like Try Again face, is finding a sufficient amount of families willing to take in a foster child, and then later adopt.

"We need families; we need committed families who will accept a child, who meets the needs that our children have. Some of our kids have very special needs. They are all going to have some type of trauma from being removed from their families," she said.

In recent years, 36 children have been adopted through Fairmont?s Try Again Homes office.

Eight more children are currently in the process of being adopted.

Source: http://www.wvpubcast.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=27622

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