ELKHART — Thousands of young Hoosiers are trying to find their "forever home" as they wade through Indiana's foster care system.
Keri Richmond considers herself one of the lucky ones.
A foster child and South Bend native who graduated from Penn High School in 2013 and went on to earn an undergraduate degree at Kent State University, Richmond said she would have fallen through the cracks if it weren't for extracurricular activities and the support of families she met through those activities.
"Less than 3 percent of foster children even go to college," she said. "Fifty-four percent of female foster teens are pregnant before they graduate high school and a large percentage of female foster children will be homeless at some point."
Those facts are backed up by the Guttmacher Institute, a leading research and policy organization in the United States, which states that "young women in foster care are more than twice as likely as their peers not in foster care to become pregnant by age 19." The study goes on to say that many of those same women will experience a repeat pregnancy before they reach 19.
May is Foster Care Month, a time dedicated to putting a spotlight on the foster care systems in our communities. In Elkhart County, the need for foster care is growing as opioid abuse spikes, according to Jenn Rasey, a regional foster care recruiter at The Villages, a nonprofit agency that connects foster families with foster children.
Rasey said their facility on Old U.S. 20 in Elkhart has "definitely seen an increase" over the last few years as more and more school-age children find themselves without a permanent home.
"There is a huge need for foster families that are willing to take in older kids," she said. "Most want younger children, but right now there are a lot of school-age children that need secure, caring homes."
Rasey said that a large part of the growing need is the increasing impact substance abuse is having in the community. She said that, according to the Indiana Association of Resources and Child Advocacy, 51 percent of parents now suffer from some type of substance abuse issue and are unable to take care of their children properly.