Angels Foster Care of Santa Barbara recently opened a new office in downtown Orcutt. The agency is a nonprofit that recruits, screens, and trains foster parents from Santa Barbara County to care for infants and toddlers who have been detained by Santa Barbara County Child Welfare Services due to abuse, neglect, or abandonment.
The new office, located at 210 E. Clark St., suite D, will be holding an open house on Nov. 17 from 4 to 6 p.m. The event will offer an opportunity for community residents to meet the Angels staff, learn more about foster care and adoption in Santa Barbara County, and meet some of Angels’ current foster families.
Angels Foster Care of Santa Barbara founder Meichelle Arntz is hoping for a strong turnout because of the shortage of certified foster parents in the area.
“We had to turn away 33 kids because we did not have enough families,” Arntz said.
Arntz is hoping the new Orcutt office will make the organization more visible to potential foster parents in the community. Angels’ need is high because its parenting program has higher requirements than the state. Angels is a licensed, private foster family agency, operating independently, but in cooperation with Santa Barbara County Social Services.
Each Angels foster family must provide a stay-at-home parent, foster only one child (or sibling group) at a time, and commit to keep the child until reunification with the birth parents or adoption occurs.
The agency primarily works with children 2 and younger who are entering foster care for the first time.
“They really need a lot of attention when they’re tiny,” Arntz said.
Due to critical shortages, the need for certified foster homes is ongoing. Information is available online at angelssb.com or by calling 884-0012.
This week’s Community Corner was compiled by intern Jacob Lopez. Send items for consideration to Managing Editor Amy Asman at aasman@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 4-10, 2010.
