Nye County in need of foster parents  

Families interested in helping foster children can learn how Saturday, June 25 at a community forum in Pahrump. The event is free and open to the public, and will feature a question-and-answer session featuring foster parents and state officials.

“Pahrump illustrates the dire need for more rural Nevada foster families,” says a news release from the state, which says Pahrump has seven licensed foster homes but “six are full or on hold.”  

The state says some 400 children are in foster care in rural Nevada. Most were removed for neglect, which can be medical in nature, involve inadequate supervision or shelter, or failure to protect a child from harm.

Children from rural Nevada who are eligible for reunification with their families spend 14 weeks on average in foster care, according to the state.  

Foster parents can be single or married, can rent or own their home, and can work or stay at home. They receive funding from the state to help with food, housing, clothing, and school supplies for foster children.

“Foster families provide a safe and temporary home to children whose parents or caregivers may be struggling. They help keep children in their own community, close to their friends, adults they know and in the schools they’ve been attending,” Shelby Riley, a licensed social worker and rural foster care recruiter for the Division of Child and Family Services, said in a news release.  “All of these factors lend a sense of normalcy and stability. Parent visits and reunification are easier when children can enter foster care in their home communities.”

The event is Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Nye Community Coalition’s Pahrump location, 1020 E. Wilson Road. A 20-hour online foster care training program begins July 12.