Palmer Home for Children held an informational meeting Tuesday for individuals and couples interested in becoming foster parents through the children’s home’s private foster network.
A handful of people from the Columbus area came to learn more about Palmer Home and what they would need to do to accept a child into their homes for an unknown amount of time.
Palmer Home has been working with Mississippi’s Division of Family and Children’s Services to set up an alternative to state-run foster care, said Mary Beth Ketchum, a caseworker at Palmer Home.
The organization is specifically looking for Christian individuals and families who are actively involved in a church. Those people will act as a guardian to a child or children whose biological parents cannot take care of them.
Ketchum stressed that Palmer Home is not an adoption agency and the ultimate goal is reunite children with their biological parents. Individuals who want to adopt would do better looking for a different organization, according to Ketchum.
Though only a handful of people attended the meeting, Ketchum said she has been in contact with another 10 or so families in the area interested in learning more about fostering.
Palmer Home’s goal is to have foster families all over Mississippi, so Ketchum and marketing content manager Allison Chimenya have scheduled other meetings in Oxford and Hernando.
Additionally, Chimenya plans to market Palmer Home’s need for foster parents through social media and through the publications the organization already sends out to its donors, sponsors and volunteers. Palmer Home president Drake Bassett also has plans to speak at churches, civic clubs and other gatherings to recruit families and individuals to become licensed foster parents with the new network.
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