erica and carrie2.jpg
Program Supervisor for Professional Parenting,
Carrie Lauterbach (left), discusses the Foster/Adopt
Fall Festival with Erica Jourdan, recruitment
specialist for the Buncombe County Department
of Social Services.  Photo by Maya Carpenter.

By Maya Carpenter

Some children have the privilege to call on their moms and dads whenever they have a problem. However in Buncombe County, over 250 children dream of calling on their parents, but they can’t.

Those are the thoughts that surface through the minds of foster children. “Statewide, there are about 10,000 kids in foster care, and about one-third of them need adoptive placement,” said Erica Jourdan, Recruitment Specialist for the Buncombe County Department of Social Services.

The Department of
Social Services, along with other agencies like Professional Parenting,
will hold its annual Foster/Adopt Fall Festival on November 3 to
continue to inform adults about becoming foster parents. Event staff
and foster parents will be around so that interested people can listen
to real-life experiences.


“The greatest expectation is that interested people have to have the
willingness to learn. Children in foster care come from every age, race
and socio-economic status,” said Jourdan, who has an 18-year-old and
3-year-old whom she and her husband adopted. “We don’t have a target
audience,” she said.


“Although there is a need for foster care in Buncombe County, there are
a disproportionate number of minority children in foster care,” said
Carrie Lauterbach, program supervisor with Professional Parenting.


“That basically says that the work is already being done in the African-American and Hispanic communities,” Jourdan said.


Both Jourdan and Lauterbach agree that multicultural families are
strongly encouraged. “They have a kinship and are already doing the
work,” Jourdan said.


And one misconception that people have is that you have to be rich to
adopt a child, but you don’t. “Adults think that you have to be married
or own a home, but those are not the requirements,” Jourdan said. “They
do need to like children, be over 21, financially stable, able to
maintain a drug-free environment and be willing to learn.”
All children want is to be loved and know where they come from.


When Jourdan’s daughter first came to live with her, she asked her how
she felt about having a new family and she answered in saying “I’m
really happy to be apart of this family, but I’m not happy for the
reason why I’m apart of this family.”


That was powerful for Jourdan to hear, she said. But she realizes that
all children want is family. “There is no limit to how many people the
kids can love.”


The annual Foster/Adopt Fall Festival will be held on November 3 at the Asheville Chamber of Commerce, 36 Montford Ave. from 3-6p.m. For more information call (828) 250-5868.