If you have ever thought about fostering or adopting children, now is the time.

Polk County Department of Social Services maintains a special group of people:  foster and adoptive parents. We would like to tell you about what those folks do so that we may be able to add you to that list.

Foster parents provide safe, temporary homes for the children who have been removed from their own homes because of abuse, neglect or dependency.

Adoptive parents take these children and give them permanent, loving and stable families.

Fostering or adopting is a process that is both rewarding and difficult.

As such, Polk County Department of Social Services will be offering a 10-week set of classes called TIPS-MAPP, or trauma informed partnering for safety and permanence-model approach to partnerships in parenting.

These classes provide a mutual decision-making process, training, and needed guidance to the courageous families who join.

The classes will begin in September, one night a week for 10 weeks. This is an important first step in making the decision to foster and/or adopt.

We invite you to contact Polk County Department of Social Services for more information at 828- 894-2100.

– article submitted by Ruth Richardson