May is National Foster Care month and the Department of Children and Families and Department of Environmental Protection are celebrating by helping foster kids to get outside.
Through a partnership with DCF the DEP is giving state park passes to 15,000 foster families throughout Florida. Kellie Sweat Darnell is the DCF Northwest regional managing director. She says it’s important for foster children to have the chance to do things every other kid can do.
“Often when our foster parents are providing care for several children in their home, it’s not as easy to get out and about as it would for a family that just has a few children,” Sweat Darnell says
Sweat Darnell says the state is also pushing an initiative to recruit new foster parents. She says foster parents often become adoptive parents for the children they take in. And because of that, she says the state is continually in need of new foster parents.
