We know the decision to become a foster parent isn’t one a family makes lightly.
Often times, the journey to find a foster parent training entails many Google searches, scouring the Internet, and phone calls. Many of our prospective foster parents come to us after years of thinking about fostering. We take their choice to become licensed through us very seriously. When they choose Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries, they become part of a family.
Each of our foster families is assigned a Family Advocate to walk through life with them. The Family Advocate is their biggest cheerleader. They walk individuals through the entire process of becoming a foster parent, but it doesn’t stop there.
Family Advocates show up. They are at families’ houses when new children arrive. They bring meals. They are available for phone calls and texts whenever families need it.
Lorenzo Scott is one of our Family Advocates. He has been involved in the world of foster care for more than a decade between his professional and personal life.
“As a Family Advocate, we want to be their 2 a.m. friend that they can call at any time,” he said.
In Lorenzo’s role as a Family Advocate, he not only advocates for foster families and assists them with anything they may need, but he leads foster parent trainings as well. He said the trainings do a great job of preparing foster parents, but there is still a lot of unknowns that go along with welcoming new children into your home.
“You can try to prepare as much as you want to, but you never know what you’re going to encounter,” he said. “That can be a really scary thing.”
Family Advocates are there to talk through the unknown with foster parents – to be a sounding board for all of their worries and concerns.
In the first two years of Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries’s Foster Care Services program, Lorenzo has had the opportunity to work with many families. Right now, Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries is serving 87 families all around mid-Missouri, and he said working with these families has been very rewarding.
“My favorite part about being an advocate is seeing a family that was having a difficult time overcome that and start thriving,” he said.
In foster parenting and in working in the field of foster care, Lorenzo has had the opportunity to interact with many foster care organizations. He said the Family Advocate piece of Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries is unique.
“There are other organizations that advocate for families, but the way that Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries is actually doing it is unique to Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries – having that individual person assigned to each licensed family,” he said.
Our families have said Family Advocates make all the difference.
“It is really nice to have that Family Advocate that can help us navigate through the paperwork, and also just be there to support us,” Foster Parent Megan Higgins said. “Especially as first-time foster parents, not knowing, ‘Is this normal or not?’ I think that’s really big for us.”
To learn more about becoming a foster parent through Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries, click here.
