North Lincoln County Foster Care Coordinator for the Department of Family Services, Kelsi Rammell, sat down with SVI to discuss the program she runs and to raise awareness for it.

She has been serving in her role for about eight months and her job is to recruit, train, and retain foster parents in the community. She says the first thing that is important to define is what a foster child is.

“Foster child is someone that was taken into protective custody by law enforcement,” Rammell said. “Because their home or their home situation was not safe in that moment.”

So the responsibility of a foster parent is to provide that safety. The Department of Family Services will then work with the family and try to reunifying as quickly as possible.

She says currently there are five foster family homes in North Lincoln County.

“Which isn’t many,” Rammell said.

There are about 10 foster children in the community as well and some extended family members are fostering those kids.

“But the need is definitely there,” Rammell said. “We are calling on all those that would like to be foster parents.”

She says there is a background check along with an application process. Once that happens there is training involved as well. She says she tries to handle as much of that for people as possible and the training is the most “encompassing” thing a potential foster parent goes through.

“It’s basically how to navigate the system,” Rammell said on the training. “The child and what they could have been exposed to. All kinds of things like that.”

She says foster parents do the work they do because it is so rewarding and it is needful.

“We don’t always have a home for these children to go to,” Rammell said. “So, it is just rewarding to be able to offer that.”

She says people do not do it for the money, but you do receive a stipend monthly to help with any reimbursement needed for the child. That can vary depending on the need of the child.

“It also varies for a sibling group maybe,” Rammell said. “But we make the process of becoming a foster parent as effortless and free as possible.

“These people are stepping up out of the kindness of their hearts, we don’t want finances to be an issue. I try to support them through the whole process.”

She also says most of the time they do not know the situation at the time when the crisis happens. This means a child could be with a foster family for a weekend until a family member can pick them up or it could be more than a year. You never know how long it could be.

She also says you get the final say who comes into your home. She says she will try to give you as much information as possible so you know what you may be comfortable with.

If you are interested in becoming a foster parent you can reach out to her at 307-699-4197. You can also go to the Wyoming DFS website which has a foster care link.