Older teens, sibling sets, and LGBTQ youth struggle to find homes in the foster care system

By Rachel Rood

Published December 21, 2021 at 1:18 PM EST

On the "Sound of Ideas," we discuss the struggle to place older kids and siblings in the foster care system in homes. [zimmytws/shutterstock]

Cuyahoga County is asking members of the community to consider being an adoptive or foster parent to youth looking for a permanent home. Hundreds of children in the county's foster care system are in need of homes.

Over 800 kids are seeking adoptive parents, meaning their birth parents' legal rights over them have been terminated, and half of those kids don't have an identified family.

Many of the youth in the system are older teens who need a permanent family before they age out of the system. There's also an urgent need to place LGBTQ kids, Black boys and large groups of siblings who would do better in a home together.

Today, on the "Sound of Ideas," we're going to talk more about who these youth are and what it means to them to be placed with a family that can provide love and support.

Also this hour, the US Surgeon General issued a warning this month that said suicide rates are on the rise among young people, and that there needs to be more attention paid to the mental health of Black youth. We'll discuss the issue with experts from MetroHealth.

And, we'll talk to Ideastream's Gabriel Kramer about his recent reporting on diversity in kids tv shows, in light of a new PBS kids show centered on a Filipino American family.

Resources

Bellefaire Mentor program contact information:

Gregory A. Vazquez-Norman, LISW-S

Supervisor, Foster Youth Mentoring Program

Bellefaire JCB

22001 Fairmount Boulevard

Shaker Heights OH 44118

Direct: 216.320.6699

Fax: 216.320.6488

normang@bellefairejcb.org

Community of Hope website:

https://www.hopecle.org

Cuyahoga County Website:

https://hhs.cuyahogacounty.us (search foster care and adoption)

Recruitment Line: (216)881-5775

-Marsheena Murray, PhD, Clinical Child Psychologist, MetroHealth
-Charles Modlin, MD, Urologist & Medical Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, MetroHealth
-Alan Nevel, Senior Vice President and Chief Equity Officer, MetroHealth
-Zelma Brown, Foster Parent Recruiter, SAFY
-Gwendolyn Compton, Foster Parent
-Kanisha West-Thomas, Former Foster Youth
-Gabriel Kramer, Multiple Media Producer, Ideastream Public Media