Fostering a better future for children in Windsor

With more than 400 children in care, the Windsor-Essex Children’s Aid Society is looking to create 50 new foster homes.

Currently, the 165 foster homes active in the region are becoming overcrowded as more care options are being needed.

Since announcing their initiative to attract more foster parents, WECAS has seen a noticeable increase in inquiries about fostering; primarily by email. Justin Rusenstrom, a foster care recruiter and trainer said while there are many factors to become a foster parent, applicants need to keep an open mind.

“People who are more successful fostering are able to try different approaches,” said Rusenstrom. “Being open to different ways to engage, discipline and teach children is a real critical factor.”

The Children’s Aid Society relies on their more experienced foster parents to take on three to four children. However, the organization would prefer to keep foster homes to a single child with the exception of siblings.

Dan Wright has been fostering children for the past 10 years. Wright and his wife have taken in seven foster children who have all moved on to different homes.

“Some have gone back to their parents which is great,” said Wright. “Some have gone to other relatives and some have been adopted. One has moved on to another foster house.”

Wright said while foster parents do not always understand the situations the children come from, it is important for them to be understanding and love the children unconditionally.

After the children leave the foster home, Wright said he and his wife do not stay in regular contact with the children. This is to avoid potential conflict with the guardians they move on to.

According to former foster child Hope Owen, 17, contact between the children and different homes can be difficult. 

At the age of two, Owen went into the foster care system. Over the next six years, she moved between 16 foster homes while trying to be placed back into the home of her birth mother. However, she said it felt like WECAS was trying to keep her and her mother apart.

“I know that sometimes it is kind of hard because the birth family isn’t suitable to see the child,” said Owen. “But in my case, I had visits with her every week.”

She said it felt like WECAS was against her seeing her birth mother. This is a sentiment she said she shares with fellow foster children.

“I’ve talked to a couple other foster children I’ve known in my life and they, they kind of all feel the same. It’s kind of like they [WECAS] try to push them [birth parents] out of your life,” said Owen.

Rusenstrom said WECAS ensures every child has a child service worker assigned to them to address concerns the child may have. However, in Owen’s case she said her worker tried to work things out, but her voice did not feel heard.

At the age of 13, Owen was adopted by one of her foster mothers. However, once she was adopted she said it felt like her mother was taken away from her. She said she could not properly communicate with her now adoptive mother. This resulted in her eventually moving out and trying to live with her mother again. Now, she lives with her older sister.

Rusenstrom said WECAS is looking to find new foster homes to help match foster children with better parents. The development, according to Owen, is a step in the right direction.