Grace Epperly, the Development Coordinator for Wesley House Family Services, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the organization.
February had a lot of fundraisers for Wesley House.
Epperly said, “February is very busy for us, and we’re very grateful for all the support that we had, the businesses and individuals who donated items to our Keys wide auction. It was really successful. And then we had our Galantines lunch here in Key West, and then we also had our Valentine’s Gala in Key Largo. So that was a busy month, but it was nice to celebrate and get the community together. And then next Saturday, the 28th we have our black tie benefit here in Key West that is sold out. And we are extremely grateful to all of the sponsors who have supported that event. It’s going to be a lot of fun. We’re excited about it, and getting ready.”
What does Wesley House do?
Epperly said, “Wesley House is the Child Welfare nonprofit in Monroe County. We provide foster care for any children that need to be removed from their home to keep them safe. We license foster parents in Monroe County. We do adoption services for children in foster care who cannot be reunified with their families. The goal is always reunification. So we are strengthening the family at the same time, we’re working with the families to help them address whatever issues brought them to the attention of the department, children and families. DCF, they’re the ones that make the decision if the case is severe enough that the children need to be removed, sometimes the case is not that severe, and then that goes to our Strengthening Families preventions side, and what we do is that’s a short term intervention program where we work with the families who are in crisis to address their issues, get them connected with other community resources to prevent the children from being removed from the home. Because the goal is always to keep the families together. And then we have our Healthy Families Program, which is a free, voluntary program open to anyone who’s pregnant or their children are three months or less in age. We work with that family until the child’s age five. And then in Key West, we have our preschool, which is our Inez Martin Child Development Center, serving ages two to five. We serve all of Monroe County. And then in July of last year, we transitioned up to Homestead for the full case management side. So we now have cases in South Miami Dade as well.”
Foster parents are always needed.
Epperly said, “We never know when a child is going to come into care, and we never know where they’re going to be located in the Keys. So the goal is we want to try to keep that child, or children in their same environment, in their same school, , so they could be doing their same activities with their same friend groups, because it’s already traumatic enough when a child has to be removed from their home, so let’s try to make it less traumatic and keep them as close to their comfort zone as possible. So that’s why we’re always recruiting foster parents, because, again, we never know when that’s going to happen and where they’re going to be located. So the more foster parents that we have to draw from, it’s just very helpful. We are looking for foster parents who will be comfortable with infants all the way up to teenagers and those that can also accommodate sibling groups. The requirements are you have to take an eight week foster parent training licensing course, and then there’s an extensive background check with fingerprints and a home study and so forth. And then the same for any adults that are living in the home. The entire process takes roughly about five months to become a licensed foster parent, and then during that eight week course, you’re going to go through a lot of different information, and you’ll be able to decide if this is something you want to pursue or not. Taking the eight week course is not a guarantee. You could get to week six or something, and say, oh, it’s not for me. But it’s very rewarding. Everybody I know who’s been a foster parent, it’s extremely rewarding to be able to make such a positive difference in a child’s life.”
Is more than one child ever assigned to one foster parent?
Epperly said, “It varies case by case, and it also depends on the size of the home and how many children they’re licensed for, and what they can accommodate. So, for example, I think right now we have like, seven foster parents in Monroe County. But then we talk about bed capacity. So out of that seven, we have a bed capacity of 21, so it just depends. It depends how many they’re licensed for and and how many they can handle. Obviously, we definitely want to try to keep siblings together whenever we can. So that is a goal. We do also look for family members, and that’s kind of the first route is, we’ll try to connect the children with family, a relative. There’s also something called fictive kin, and that is basically like a family friend, somebody that the child already has a relationship with but they’re not related to. And then there’s two types of foster parenting. So there’s level one and there’s level two. Level one is basically a family member or a fictive kin. Then level two is your traditional foster parent, where the child does not know them or have a relationship with them. So we license for both, but level two is the one that’s really the greatest need.”
What happens if there’s not enough foster parents in our community to accommodate the need?
Epperly said, “Then the children have to be placed outside of Monroe County, which we try not to have that happen. But again, if there’s a family member that’s living out of Monroe County, then we’ll place them outside of Monroe County. Now, because the case originated here in Monroe County, it falls under Wesley House, and then our staff is overseeing them, even if they are located out of Monroe County.”
There are currently 200 children that Wesley House is working with, especially with the addition of Miami Dade County.
Epperly said, “The age range is the full gamut. We have children sometimes that come straight from the hospital when they’re born, and then up to age 17, and then they’ll age out at 18. I know that we do have a few youth aging out this year, and what we like to do when they’re aging out is open it up to the community. We usually do a trunk party, and we kind of help the youth get the items that they need if they’re going to go to college or if they’re going to be starting their own apartment or whatever. So like, those kind of home essentials to help them on their path to independence. So that’s always a nice thing to participate in, too. The Moose Lodge in Key West is providing Easter baskets for children and at Wesley House, and they’re asking for help. So I know on their Facebook page they have an Amazon wish list. So if anybody would like to purchase some items that they’re going to put in the Easter baskets, that would be a big help as well.”
For more information, click here: https://www.wesleyhouse.org/