Chatham County NC - Foster Parent Recruitment

12/23/2020

Happy Holidays to you and your loved ones from Chatham County DSS! Stay safe.

12/09/2020

This past weekend our busy Elves and our amazing community came together to make the Chatham County Christmas Wishes Program happen, despite Covid! Following all precautions and keeping in mind the safety of everyone, we were able to collect over 400 Christmas gifts for children in need in Chatham County. We also collected gifts for our elderly population. THANK YOU so much to our donors, sponsors, volunteers and staff because without you we couldn’t have made this happen! Happy Holidays & a Happy New Year 🎁🎄

11/21/2020

It was with great excitement and anticipation last year that we asked those who attended National Adoption Day to share their thoughts about “why family matters.” Many people wrote their feelings, drew pictures, and wrote short stories on the quilt squares provided. Our intention had been to reveal the assembled quilt this year, but we have decided to postpone this until we can gather in person again.

So please go ahead and mark your calendars for next year’s National Adoption Day which will be held on November 20, 2021. Until then, please continue to consider how you can support the Children of Chatham and consider becoming a foster or adoptive parent. You can always express your interest by contacting [email protected]

11/21/2020

No one is ever too old for a family. This is something that Joe Toles has put into practice as an adoptive father, choosing to parent older teenage boys and helping them grow by first giving them roots.

Hear more about the Toles’ family story here.

Joe grew up in foster care and aged out of the system when he was 21 years old. “Statistically, I should be in jail, or I could be dead,” he says. “But that’...

11/21/2020

There are currently 198 children across the state of North Carolina who are in need of adoptive homes. These children have all been through difficult experiences and deserve to know that they have a family they can rely on to love, support, and nurture them.

All of the children in Chatham County who are actively in need of adoptive families are featured on the website. To find out more about these children specifically, please contact [email protected]

11/21/2020

One youth’s story about how his foster care and adoption experience shaped his life and is directing him into his future career.

A long journey to a great destination February 13, 2019      By Joshua Christian In this guest post, Joshua Christian describes his path from foster care to family. My journey through the child welfare system lasted 18 years. During that time, I moved from home, to home, to home. Because I didn....

11/21/2020

“I know when he told me you’re not going anywhere, that he meant it.”

Joe Toles spent his childhood in foster care and decided that as an adult, he wanted to be the father he didn’t have. He and his 3 sons (adopted when they were 14, 15, and 18) share their individual life experiences and what it was like to come together as a family through adoption.

Since this was filmed, the Toles family has continued to grow- stay tuned to hear more from them later today.

You Gotta Believe's mission is to find adoptive parents for young adults, teens and pre-teens before they age out of the foster care system and run the extre...

11/21/2020

Reflections from an adoptive youth about the impact of her adoption and experiences in foster care.

“Being loved has taught me how to love” January 8, 2018      By AdoptUSKids “My parents care about me more than anyone ever has, and that means the world to me.” Aria Williams spent eight years in foster care before being adopted when she was 16 years old. Today, Aria is a freshman in co...

11/21/2020

Are you considering adopting from foster care but aren’t sure if you have the information you need to get started?

Take this short quiz and see how much you really know about what is takes to parent a child from foster care. You might surprise yourself with how much you know!

See what you know about the children and teens in foster care and what it takes to parent them

11/21/2020

**Story from Chatham County**

“These 2 singlehandedly changed my life. They have made life really worth living. God has a funny sense of humor. I thought fostering was my calling, turns out He had a permanency plan of His own. 6/29/17 and 11/18/17 were the best days of my life and becoming a mom has been the most rewarding and challenging experience ever. All I’ll say is listen to your heart when it comes to fostering and adopting. It will never lead you wrong!”

11/21/2020

Teens and older youth can have different worries or fears associated with adoption then younger children, but they might be different than you expect...

More than 125,000 children are waiting to be adopted from foster care in the United States. The teenagers featured in this video bravely agreed to share thei...

11/21/2020

For the last few years, Chatham County has celebrated National Adoption Day along with hundreds of other communities across the country. While we are not gathering together in person this year, we invite you to join us virtually to learn more about adoption from foster care. Throughout the day, we will be sharing stories of children and families who have taken this journey as well as sharing information about ways that you can be involved in helping the Children of Chatham find forever families.

Since our last event, there have been 29 adoptions filed with the Chatham Clerk of Court, the majority of which have been achieving permanency for children in foster care. Every year at our celebration, we commemorate those children’s experiences by adding a representation of them to our “Handprint House.”

This is normally done before our event and the addition is revealed the day of, but this year, we wanted to get your input! With 29 new markings to be made on our canvas, what do you think we should add?