Foster Care Summit Held at Bristol Motor Speedway, Uniting Community for a Noble Cause

BRISTOL, Tenn. – A Rally for Foster Care

Bristol Motor Speedway resonated with hope and care as it hosted a crucial foster care summit, dubbed – Our Children, Our Future. The summit was organized with an aim to bolster the foster care system in Tennessee to ensure children in need of temporary housing find a safe and loving environment.

Playing a Vital Role for Foster Care

Tennessee Kids Belong, a leading non-profit organization for child welfare, accentuated the needs of nearly 9,000 kids across the state in urgent need of foster care. Over 270 of these children hail from Sullivan County. The organization highlighted that a majority of these children are forced into care due to cases of neglect or abuse endured from their primary caregivers.

The Need for Community Support

The turnover in foster parents is alarmingly high, with about 50% quitting within their first drive year. This precarious situation is often attributed to a lack of community support, which is a significant area we can improve upon. Believing in collective community effort, Ms. Kristin Miller, Community Engagement Director for East Tennessee with Tennessee Kids Belong, spoke, “A lack of community support is something we can do something about.”

Challenges of Foster Parenting

Brittany Boles, a new entrant into the foster parenting world, speaks candidly about the hardships. “Being a parent is challenging in general, adding fostering to it takes it to another level.” The reassurance, love, and care a foster parent provides many times over is unrewarding, which stokes their determination and reinforces their commitment to their foster children.

Ms. Miller concurred, “It’s not like raising your biological children because these kids have been through a lot of trauma.”

Offering a Helping Hand

If you consider it hard to be a foster parent, there are several other ways you can pitch in to support these children and foster parents. Basic everyday activities are a start – simple tasks like babysitting, dropping them to school, helping with meals, laundry, or mowing yards, can make a considerable difference, Ms. Miller stressed. These small deeds can relieve the stress off the foster parents, making their journey a bit smoother.

Rewards of Being a Foster Parent

Despite the roadblocks, many like Brittany Boles find being a foster parent immensely rewarding. She believes that providing a secure and loving environment for a child in need is a special privilege. “To be that loving caregiver that a child or children and youth need is the most special thing to me.”

Events such as the Foster Care Summit are a big step towards embracing the importance of the fostering system, the crucial role it plays in our society, and nurturing strong community support for everyone involved in fostering.