High Five for '25

At the beginning of 2024, we set a goal of licensing 24 families for the year with our Twenty Four in ’24 campaign. We received many inquiries from our fantastic community, and our amazing staff worked extra hard to license 20 families in 2024, with another 9 families currently in the final home study portion of the licensing process! We are thrilled with the number of individuals who responded to the call and inquired to learn more about becoming a foster parent. Thank you, Medina County!

Now that we have these newly licensed families, it is time for us to turn our attention to 2025. As part of the licensing process, families can specify the age range of children they are willing to consider for placement in their home. We started to look a little closer at the age of the children in our foster care system versus the number of families available to take placement of those children. Of the children currently in our custody, only 15% of the children are under age 5. That means the remaining 85% of children in the custody of Medina County Job and Family Services are aged 5 or older. Unfortunately, the numbers for available MCJFS families for children in this age range does not match the need.

We know that families have a variety of reasons why they may be hesitant to work with our older children. They may think younger children have fewer behaviors to manage. Maybe they don’t have experience with older children, and that can be intimidating! Some families already have biological children in the home and are concerned about bringing in children older than their own children. These are all important things to think about, but there may be more to consider, and the reality may not be what you think! 

For 2025, we are setting a goal of licensing 8 families for children aged 5 and older. With our High Five for ’25 campaign, we will attempt to dispel some of the myths surrounding older children in the foster care system and help answer some of those questions that may prevent families from working with older children.

Here is our challenge to you for 2025: Would you consider simply exploring the idea of opening your home to a school-aged child and commit to finding out a little more this year? Your willingness to ask a question may very well lead to changing a child’s entire life. And if you ask our foster parents , they would tell you that it will change your life as well!

To learn more about fostering a school-aged child:
Call/Text (330) 667-0167
Email info@fostermedina.com
Visit www.fostermedina.com