Door County needs your help providing children with a temporary home. Approximately 8,000 kids are in foster homes statewide, including just over a dozen in Door County. While many kids have been able to stay local while their biological parents work through their situations, Vivian Grair from the Door County Department of Social Services says some are sent to different counties because there is no room for them here. The goal for kids in foster care is to eventually be reunited with their birth parents or at least find some solution within 18 months of the children entering the system. Grair says there are misconceptions about the kids that enter foster care that might impact potential parents from joining the program.

Grair says the foster parent community in Door County is a tight-knit group that is always willing to help each other. Door County hosts foster parent orientation over Zoom once a month, with its next one coming on August 4th. The training goes over everything you will need to do before welcoming a foster child into your home.