Author: equipped & encouraged

Find Your Local Foster Care Numbers

Are you curious about the current foster care numbers in your community? Maybe you heard a speaker or happened upon a website sharing statistics about foster care that seem a bit hard to believe? In the state of Florida, you can check the statistics yourself!

The button below will take you to Florida’s Office of Child and Family Well-Being Dashboard:

Information on the Dashboard is updated monthly and can be drilled down from the statewide numbers to those of individual regions, counties, or community-based care agencies (CBCs). There is a lot of data to be explored. You can find not only information about children in out-of-home (foster) care, but also information about allegations, investigations, children exiting care, and families receiving in-home services.

To find the data used in the infographic above, click on “Monthly Trend” on the lefthand side of the main dashboard page, then on the square at the bottom of the second page that says, “Children and Young Adults in Out-of-Home Care”, and finally, click on the County Dropdown Menu and choose Brevard.

It’s been said that knowledge is power. We believe the more you know about what is happening in foster care in your neighborhood, the better your understanding will be. With better understanding, you will begin to see where you, your church, your business, or you organization can step in and make a difference. Check out the ways you can get involved right here.

How Can You Support Foster Families?

Right in your neighborhood, there are foster families.

There could be a foster family a few blocks away who had breakfast with two children this morning and is tucking six into bed tonight.

There might be a foster family two streets over who just got a call that the children they’ve been fostering have a newborn baby brother who needs them.

Maybe there’s a foster family on your cul de sac with five children who need to be in five different places today … all at the same time.

Perhaps there’s a foster family next door with parents who haven’t had a date night in a year, who can’t seem to ever get caught up on laundry, and who are considering feeding the kids cereal for dinner tonight because they’re simply exhausted!

You can help!! Read more