There’s always a need for foster parents, and to help meet that need the Beaufort County Department of Social Services will conduct a foster parent/adoption orientation in January

“Always,” replied Shirley Williams with the DSS office in Washington when asked if there’s a constant need for foster parents.

Currently, there are about 25 foster parents within Beaufort County she said. In 2012, the department had 49 percent of Beaufort County’s foster children placed in foster homes outside the county, according to DSS figures.

The orientation is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Jan. 13, 2014, at the DSS office, 632 W. Fifth St., Washington.

“We teach the training twice a years, so we will have another orientation. We have an open-door policy that anyone can come out anytime and learn about the steps for becoming a foster parent,” Williams said.

“What the orientation covers is the steps and why taking the training is important because a lot of times people, as well as myself, will say, ‘I have children. I already know how to raise children.’ This training is a Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting (program) because you’re actually parenting children who have been through different traumas,” Williams said. “Just different things that we would consider that the normal or average child does not go through. The training is based on different techniques, different studies and things to show the foster parents … their roles and what types of decisions foster parents can make (regarding foster children) and what types of decisions that the agency has to make. It does a lot of just giving insight on things.”

The MAPP class is a series of programs designed to prepare you to become excellent foster or adoptive parents for our children. The topics we will cover include: what is foster care and adoption, discipline, child development, gains and losses, and self-esteem, just to name a few.

Foster parents receive funds to provide room and board for their foster children, Williams noted.

For more information about the orientation or becoming a foster parent, contact Shirley Williams at 252-940-6023.