VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — May is National Foster Care Awareness Month, an opportunity to learn more about the needs and resources in our area.
As of March 2024, the Virginia Department of Social Services reported 939 children in the foster care system in the Eastern Region of the state, including the seven cities and surrounding municipalities.
Foster care reports in the seven Hampton Roads cities:
- Norfolk 208
- Virginia Beach 188
- Newport News 117
- Hampton 88
- Chesapeake 62
- Suffolk 37
- Portsmouth 31
Connect with a Wish provides resources for kids and young adults in the foster care system. Joy Rios founded this organization to grant wishes from children throughout the year.
“It started out where kids were making wishes for beds,” Rios said. “We’re like, ‘That’s not a wish. That’s a necessity.’ Then we had to create the program that would just give them a bed because that’s not a wish. We encourage those wishes to be dance lessons, taekwondo, art, things outside their spectrum that are not paid for by foster parents.”
Following the adoption of her oldest daughter — born into the foster care system 24 years ago — Rios realized there are a lot of gaps in the system.
“That’s why we’ve expanded to 20 different programs,” Rios said. “This is not what I thought we were going to do, … but the need is so great.”
“All the cities need new foster parents all the time,” Rios said. “These people are angels that walk the earth. They take children in regardless of what their circumstances is and what the situation is, and they care for them like their own.”
The nonprofit organization is celebrating 10 years of service — now providing comfort bags for children, a clothing closet, support groups, career connections, special events, summer camps, as well as essential and household items.
“We’re working at [these programs] daily,” Rios said. “I know that they’re helping and easing a tough situation and hopefully … giving kids hope.”
Rios partnered with Del. Anne Ferrell Tata (R-Virginia Beach) to advocate for the passage of free room and board for foster children.
“HB700 allows kids that are aging out of foster care to go to a college or university in Virginia,” Tata said. “They pay for their tuition, their fees and their housing, room and board. What’s really important is only about 4% of these kids that age out go on to a four-year college.
“The numbers are small. Part of the reason the numbers are small, it just seemed too big. It seemed too overwhelming for them to even dream. So having this taken care of, we can really cast a vision for these young people to say, ‘hey, there’s an option for you if you go on and go to college.”
The bipartisan bill passed earlier this year and Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed off on it.
“We’re all working together to help parent these children that are really traumatized,” Tata said. “They’ve already been through so much. They have so much going against them. Yet with all of us working together. We’re here to say, ‘Hey, you’re your best days are ahead of you and not behind you.'”
Rios hopes to open housing called Take 2 Community just for children that have aged out of the foster care system.
“We have one of the highest numbers of kids aging out who don’t get adopted,” Rios said. “[For] that age out population, we have a lot of programs. We have beefed up our service for that population because they are aging out at 21, and homelessness is a big problem. When the kids age out, 20% of them are automatically homeless the day they age out. Eighteen months from then, that number rises to 40%.”
Learn more: https://www.connectwithawish.org/
