Foster parents and caseworkers make a big difference for many local kids

Editor:

This past weekend was considered a time to remember that our children need to be protected.  This reminded me that as a human services caseworker, specifically as a Foster Care and Preventive Caseworker for Orleans County for 30 years before retiring in 2020, that we have lost two of the best people in Orleans County the past two years who dedicated their lives to protecting our children in Orleans County. Those two saintly foster parents are Lucy Burch and Gert Anderson, both of Lyndonville.

These two ladies and their families, for years, took in all kinds of children to give them a safe haven from, not only neglect and abuse, but from the children’s own self-deprecating behaviors. Both ladies were able to keep in touch with many of these children even after the children left their foster homes and they  continued to be a source of support for many of these young people.

Let me dispel a common fictional belief of foster parents: They do not get plenty of money to take in someone else’s children. They are basically allotted just enough to be able to help these youngsters.

This is done purposely as to attempt to avoid people becoming a part of the system with a goal to get rich off of it, only to obviously worsen a child’s situation. Foster care is truly a sacrifice that these foster parents make in an attempt to help parents who are unable to care for their children, at least at the time the children are placed in foster care by family court.

Many, if not all, foster parents, lose money to help take care of these children and a lot of it is because they use their own money to help the children feel more a part of their family, at least during what is hoped to be a temporary situation.

Foster parents like Gert and Lucy are missed, but I can tell you based on experience that so many of the foster parents in Orleans County are life savers for these children. Are there a few foster parents who are able to hide especially neglect from caseworkers and their supervisors as well as the courts and the children’s legal representatives? Certainly.  It happens and these are the “bad apples” who have caused so many great foster parents to deal with the repercussions for reputation, locally and nationally. Just like any group of people, ethnic or otherwise, there are a relative few deviants who can ruin the public view of that group.

Gert and Lucy (and their husbands, Harley Anderson and Jim Burch and families), who began being foster parents in the early ’80s, were two of the most unselfish people I have ever met, but they certainly weren’t the only foster parents in Orleans County who were so supportive and saviors for many children.

Two other families that come to mind were Bill and Betty Cooper of Albion and Bob and Cathy Foss of Medina, who also took in many children in the ’80s and ’90s. The Coopers were especially instrumental in helping Black foster children in Orleans County and at that time even did “daycare” for their grandson, Trellis Pore, who has become an instrumental community leader as Pastor of Albion’s Shiloh Church. The Fosses, like the Andersons, were fundamental in helping teenage girls in Orleans County for years.

There certainly have been and are fabulous foster parents in Orleans County, just as there are in our country and around the world. The system is certainly not perfect, but it is definitely better for the children who can have little to no protection living in their homes where their parents are neglectful or abusive.

Most of the parents, themselves, have been the victims of their own neglectful/abusive parents, a terrible cycle that, more than likely, has gone on for generations. Foster parents can and have become the answers in attempts to negate this cyclical generational misfortune for children.

In addition to my career as a foster care caseworker, I am aware of the dynamics of this process as my own parents, Bob and Margaret Golden, were also foster parents while I was in my teenage years. While not foster parents for long, just about four years, they did have some effect on certain children who have become contributing members of our community and who have kept in touch with my parents throughout the years.

Finally, while sharing my experiences of foster parents and children, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention one of the greatest groups of people I have had the pleasure to work with: Orleans County Child Protective Workers, as well as the Foster Care and Preventive workers, Adult Protective Workers and all our supervisors. They are truly people who care about children of their community but also the people they work with who have issues where guidance and support is necessary.

For anyone who is intrigued by what I have written and has thoughts of possibly becoming a foster parent. Child & Family Services is located in the Orleans County Office Building and they are always willing to take calls from perspective foster parents.

It’s not a lucrative job, and it is not easy, but it can be so rewarding most likely, for a definite placement in heaven. Just ask two women who have left their mark on Orleans County when you get there….Gert and Lucy.

Gerry Golden

Retired Foster Care/Preventive Caseworker in Orleans County

Rochester