Local foster care needs outlined for Wooster Kiwanis

Laura Sirot, professor and associate chair of biology at The College of Wooster and a Wayne County Children Services board member, spoke to the Kiwanis Club of Wooster May 12 about the current foster care crisis in Wayne County and across the state.

Sirot’s presentation highlighted the reasons for the current crisis and ways the community can come together to help address and alleviate the situation. Sirot has worked with WCCS since 2012. She and her husband fostered children for several years prior to adopting. They continue to be involved by mentoring another family whom they were connected to through WCCS. Sirot was selected to serve on the WCCS board in 2024.

Sirot said in Wayne County, there are many more children in care than there are foster homes. While some of these children have high care needs and may need the extra support and assistance of a residential facility, even children without these high care needs are in residential or therapeutic facilities because there aren’t enough families willing to foster.

“We are sending many of our most vulnerable community members [our children] far away from their families and community for care,” said Sirot. “In addition to being separated from their parents, they are being further disrupted by being placed in a residential facility rather than a home and being far enough away that it makes visitations difficult, if not impossible, for their families. Some of these kids are being placed in out-of-state facilities.”

The cost of these facilities is uncapped, with some charging more than $1,000 per day. As a result, the WCCS budget is stretched thin at a time when state and federal sources are not keeping up with their costs, making it difficult to provide the other forms of family support that WCCS offers to families in crisis.

Sirot invited the community to help alleviate this crisis by learning to serve as temporary foster homes for children in need in the community and by working with WCCS to propose ideas for how to increase the local community of foster families.

“Fostering children is one of the most challenging and rewarding things I have done in my life,” said Sirot. “I felt a love that I didn’t know was possible and was taught by WCCS how to work toward reunification of the family while still opening our hearts to the children in our care. … I feel that our community can come together to help solve this problem.”

Per its website, Kiwanis’ mission is simple: “To put children first.” Everything Kiwanis does is focused on enriching and improving the lives of children in the community. The site states: “Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to improving the world one child and one community at a time.” Its vision is that “Kiwanis will be a positive influence in communities worldwide — so that one day, all children will wake up in communities that believe in them, nurture them and provide the support they need to thrive.”

Sirot said this mission makes Kiwanis the perfect community partner for WCCS to help brainstorm how to foster the culture of foster care in Wayne County.

Wooster Kiwanis meets weekly, bringing in speakers to share information, happenings and events and to inform club members about matters of public interest.