{"id":43513,"date":"2021-11-30T02:12:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-30T02:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/social-services-hosts-meeting-on-becoming-a-foster-parent\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T09:13:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:13:58","slug":"social-services-hosts-meeting-on-becoming-a-foster-parent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/social-services-hosts-meeting-on-becoming-a-foster-parent\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Services hosts meeting on becoming a foster parent"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"New
New COVID-19 outbreaks include Montezuma County Department of Social Services.<\/span>The Journal file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

There will be an informational meeting about becoming a foster parent on Dec. 8 at 5:30 p.m. at the Montezuma County Social Services office, at 109 W. Main St., Cortez.<\/p>\n

Officials are trying to generate more interest in becoming a foster parent because there is a shortage in the county, said Social Services Director Gina Montoya.<\/p>\n

As a result, local kids are being forced to move outside the county and state to be placed in a foster home.<\/p>\n

Thirty-four children are in foster care in Montezuma County, and four are placed outside the county, including in Denver, Grand Junction and Texas. The department prefers zero out-of-county placements, if possible, Montoya said.<\/p>\n

\"More
More foster homes are needed in Montezuma County to prevent children from being placed outside the county or state, according to social services. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

When kids are are forced out of their home town or county, it creates even more disruption for them, said foster care coordinator Candy Shupe.<\/p>\n

Leaving friends and social support networks, starting a new school and being farther away from the parents and family is traumatic, she said. It also affects parents who have to take off work to travel for court-ordered visitation.<\/p>\n

There is especially a need for foster parents to care for children ages 12 and up.<\/p>\n

To become a foster parent, you must be over 21, pass a criminal background check, have a safe home, be financially stable and be physically able to care for children.<\/p>\n

Applicants face an interview process, 27 hours of training and home evaluations. Foster parents must be certified in CPR and first aid.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to be perfect or have the perfect home to become a foster parent,\u201d Shupe said. \u201cYou need to have empathy, understand the kids come from hard places, but are good kids who need a safe home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Typically, a foster parent will have a child placed in their homes for six to nine months. Foster parents can request a certain age group or gender, and can decline a placement based on behavioral issues of the child.<\/p>\n

Foster parents are also provided financial support from Social Services to care for a child and may receive up to $1,000 per month to cover expenses. Social Services also provides transportation and child care services for the foster parent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shortage in Montezuma County forces kids to move farther away from home<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[408,747,1972,28,60,29,2682],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-charity","tag-children","tag-family","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter","tag-social-services"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43513"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85731,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43513\/revisions\/85731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43513"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}