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More foster parents needed in Palm Beach County

Posted at 5:31 PM, Nov 16, 2018
and last updated 2018-11-17 00:00:58-05

Juliana Gaita has her hands full.

She never thought she would have five kids, and on Friday her family grew.

Juliana is a foster parent. She started fostering after volunteering as an attorney ad-litem.

"I enjoy seeing families kind of come together," Gaita said.

So she opened up her home to help with a growing need. After fostering 13 kids and adopting three more, she's taking a break to focus on the newest member of her family.

"We feel like we are the lucky ones," Gaita said.

"Probably about a third of our foster parents end up adopting," said Larry Rein, the CEO of ChildNet.

Recently, federal funding to group homes was cut, and that's creating an even bigger need for foster parents.

"We need so many more foster parents," Rein said.

Helping with that is Speak for Kids Palm Beach County. The group created Foster Palm Beach, a centralized foster home recruiter.

"We knew that sometimes people were falling through the cracks, and by creating one central point they could go to we could ensure that they got followed up on and sent to the right person," Diana Reese said.

Reese is working with other agencies in the county with the goal of creating more forever homes.

"We are all working as a team and we just need people to join our team to help these kids," Reese said.

For more information on fostering a child, you can contact Diana Reese at Diana@SpeakUpForKidsPBC.org, or by phone at 561-223-9646.