Grants Pass, Ore. , — “Foster beds are being lost all over the place, I mean by the hundreds.”
State Representative Duane Stark doesn’t just fight for foster children in the legislature, he fights for them in is home too.
“My wife and I have been doing foster care for over eight years now. We adopted our oldest daughter, and we have two foster boys right now we’re in the process of adopting.”
As a strong advocate for foster children, Stark is on the board of the non-profit organization “Every Child”.
It’s a program that helps foster children in Oregon find homes.
“The Every Child campaign is a really exciting movement that I think is going to partner the Department of Human Services and really rally the local community together to get involved with foster care.” said Stark.
The program is already in Josephine, Jackson and Lane counties, and is now growing to three more.
Stark hopes it will be statewide within five years.
“As a representative, I’m thrilled. I think we need to see more public private partnerships like this.”
While there are over 1,000 children in foster care in Josephine and Jackson county, there are less than 400 foster homes.
“Remind the community that we have a role, and we need to be involved, and it’s our job to take care of our children.” said Stark.
While not everyone can be a foster parent, Representative Stark hopes that given the extraordinary need out there – more people will stand up for the children in our community.
“It doesn’t matter who you are, or what your special skills are, there’s a spot for you to be involved.” said Stark.
If you would like to get involved with Every Child, visit this website: http://everychildoregon.org/
© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.