PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – A Portland-area non-profit that supports foster families is also focusing on the mental health needs of foster kids and parents.
Running with the help of volunteers, With Love provides clothing, diapers and toys to foster parents of kids between zero and six-years-old.
With Love Executive Director Venissa Gomez-Goberg says this support for foster families is “essential.”
“I’ve been a foster parent for 14 years, myself and I became a foster parent when my niece and nephew came into the system. So, I had two weeks to prepare my house, and this was before With Love was around,” Gomez-Goberg said. “There was a lot of searching on the internet to find the things that we needed and so With Love is providing ease — they’re helping families save money, and not having to go out and purchase those items themselves, and just the relief of being able to connect with their child and not have to be at the store shopping for these items.”
With Love also aims to help foster parents who may feel isolated by connecting them to other foster families in the community.
“To be able to have other people that understand what they’re going through, be able to bring those foster parents together – as well as our staff, we have a few people on our staff who are foster parents or who have been respite providers — and can provide some relief to those families every once in a while. But then also just ensuring that the family has time to focus on the needs of the kids so that they can go to therapy and get their counseling appointments and just make sure that they’re taking care of those mental health needs,” Gomez-Goberg said.