Northglenn organization pushes for more foster care parents amid growing Colorado demand
It's been four years since Kendall Gizinski started her childhood dream of becoming a foster parent.
"I started my ambition to become a foster parent when I was five years old. All my dolls were foster children," said Gizinski. "[Now] I think I 'm at 20. I've fostered 20 kids."
Among those 20 kids, she met siblings Carla, Damien and Alex nearly two years ago.
"They came into my life and just never left," said Gizkinski. "Damien, he came with six teeth. He had his bottom six teeth and that was it. That was all he had to start with. He had an abscess in his mouth from not having dental hygiene regularly cleaned."
Gizinski not only took on their difficult case, but as of August, she has taken on the responsibility of becoming their legal parent.
"Reunification is the ultimate goal. When that's not possible though, things like this happen," she said.
"These kids come in often angry, sad, confused, a lot of anxiety. They don't understand what's happening. With that comes a lot of behaviors, and it takes a very special, loving person to become a foster parent," said Tania Sossi, CEO of the Griffith Centers for Children.
The nonprofit, Griffith Centers for Children in Northglenn and Colorado Springs is a space where families whose children have entered into the child welfare system can get everything from therapy, counseling, resources and foster care services. They serve roughly 1,500 families a week across 15 counties in Colorado, but serving the population of children who enter into the foster care system is becoming more of a challenge, with not enough foster families willing to participate.
"Right now in Colorado, there is such a shortage," said Sossi.
Sossi says they are facing greater shortages now as more congregate care facilities for youth have closed under the Family First Prevention Services Act.
"And it has a beautiful mission. The mission is to get children home with families and get them out of congregate care," said Sossi.
However, the downside to eliminating facilities to house youth means more demand for foster care parents like Gizinkski.
"I would say both therapeutic foster homes, which are for children that have higher behavioral and emotional needs and then foster parents that are willing to take teens," said Sossi. "So that's probably our biggest deficit right now."
However, it is a role that does not have to be taken on alone.
"We try to do everything in house. We will help you with your background checks. We actually take care of a majority of the costs for you guys. We take care of all of the training," said Amos Espinosa, the community program manager at Griffith Centers.
While Gizinski hopes struggling families will not have to need to use foster care services in the future, she says getting to do this work now to help children is just as meaningful to her life as it is to the kids she helps.
"Just seeing where they started and where they've come to," said Gizinski. "Just call and see if you're a good fit for it, that's all anyone can ask you to do."
Information about the Griffith Centers and becoming a foster care parent can be found here.
