Springfield organization helps residents become foster parents

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — Across Sangamon County, there are over 600 foster children in need but only 200 licensed foster homes in the area.

When case workers cannot find foster homes for the kids, they are sent to live in other counties.

"They end up staying at DCFS offices with caseworkers or they end up going to hospitals or mental health institutions where they don't need to stay," says Olivia Hayse, the Executive Director of The James Project. "They end up going to group homes in places like Chicago or in Southern Illinois. And so they're taken out of not only their house and their family, but their community too."

The state of Illinois as a whole has the fourth largest foster care population in the country. Even when prospective foster parents take the leap and bring home a child, about 50% of new foster parents quit within a year of starting, says Hayse.

The James Project is a non-profit organization located in Springfield that acts as a bridge between government organizations and foster parents. Funded and run largely by volunteers, the organization provides clothing, hygiene kits, beds and even homes in some cases to foster children and their families.

"When a foster child is placed into a new home, they often don't have very many articles of clothing or resources at their disposal," said Hayse. "So what we do is we provide clothes, hygiene kits, beds, shoes, anything that they could need, at that moment, we're able to resource them and their family as they're placed into foster care through our closet."

The most used resource the James Project provides is its closet, full of clothing for boys and girls from newborns to 18-year-olds. Any foster child in the county can request use of the closet, where volunteers will put together a kit specifically to each individual child's likes.

The goal of the James Project is to help more families in the area get licensed to foster and support them when they do.

Brianna Impson, a longtime foster parent, says she would not have been able to do it without the help of the James Project.

"The James Project is a huge part of our team. Anywhere from underwear to paper plates to pillows, they have helped us with so many things."

The organization is selling artwork created by kids in foster care to fund the purchase of things like beds and car seats at its upcoming fundraiser, "Artsy." The event is on Sunday, May 7 at 1pm. To learn more about the event or fostering a child, visit the James Project's Facebook.