• By Todd Luck
• Posted Friday, June 5, 2020

Social Services celebrates foster families with drive-thru event

Foster Parents were honored with a drive-thru event held at The Forsyth County Department of Social Services (DSS) on June 3.

The Foster Home Licensing Unit at DSS normally holds a dinner to honor foster parents in May for National Foster Care Month. They usually pack a room with foster families for a fun event with food and prizes for the whole family. But with restrictions on gatherings and social distancing recommendations due to COVID-19, that’s not possible this year.

So instead, a Honk and Cheer Celebration was held in the parking lot of DSS, where foster parents drove-up and received a bag that says, “It Takes a Team to Help Children Dream” as a token of appreciation. The foster parents would honk and the DSS staff would cheer.

“We wanted to show appreciation for foster parents in a safe way,” said Foster Home Licensing Supervisor Phyllis Westbrook.

Children enter Foster Care when the court finds they are unsafe, abused or neglected. Foster families take care of the children while Social Services works with the birth family to rectify the reasons for the separation with the goal of reuniting the child or children with their birth family.

If children are unable to return to a safe home with their birth family, then Social Services works to legally free them so they can be adopted. If that happens, the foster family could be considered as a possible forever family.

DSS is constantly in need of foster parents. Training and home studies are now done virtually. For more information on becoming a foster family, contact Sharon Porter at 336-703-3677 or portersd@forsyth.cc.