Citizen Foster Care Review boards looking for volunteers

FAYETTE CO, Ky (WTVQ)- Foster care review boards across the state are in desperate need of volunteers to help review cases of local children in Kentucky’s foster care system.

In fact, more than half of Kentucky’s counties are in need of these volunteers.

Denise Marshall is a volunteer for the Kentucky Citizen Foster Care Review Board in Fayette County. She, along with her fellow members on review boards, are responsible for reviewing thousands of cases each year- to make sure kids in the state foster care system are taken care of.

“These kids end up in the situations of no fault of their own. And because of that , they may behaviors, they may have struggles and its just a very difficult situation for them,” says Marshall.

Kentucky citizen foster care review boards in 67 Kentucky counties are in need. Steven Farr, the chair of the Kentucky Citizen Foster Care Review Board says the shortage of volunteers can have an impact on cases.

“If you don’t have enough people in that meeting, it just puts more responsibility on the board members present, you know, ‘did we ask all the questions we needed to ask, did we cover everything that we needed to cover,” says Farr.

The boards meet virtually one day each month. The process is simple: you apply through Kentucky courts; are required to pass a background check; and once approved, you’re appointed to a citizen review board by a judge.

Boards meet with parties in each case, review and make a report- and then make those recommendations to the judge.

“These are our most vulnerable children in the state. And what we don’t want to have happen is for children for a lack of a better word, ‘fall between the cracks.’ And while we certainly commend the state workers who are working with these children, they have very high case loads and a lot of work to do,” says Farr.

For Marshall, kids are the future. She says that’s why its important to have volunteers from all walks of life with different experiences.

“We all don’t see everything from every point of view. So that can be challenge sometimes because you don’t want it to be one way. You don’t want these cases to be looked at in one light,” says Marshall.

Counties affected include Anderson, Bath, Clark, Jessamine and Wolf.

You can find more information here.