CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – With a mission to help children and families live successfully, Youth Villages helps children build a stable family and strong support group.
Shelby Ortner, foster care trainer and recruiter for Youth Villages in Clarksville, said the nonprofit organization is a leader in mental and behavioral health, and they are committed to building strong families and delivering effective services.
“We have specialized crisis services and in-home services where we have counselors to help foster care from happening on the front end,” said Ortner, adding that in their Clarksville office they specifically do foster care, extension of foster care services, and adoptions.
Ortner said Youth Villages is a therapeutic foster care agency, which is different from regular foster care. “The children have some sort of therapeutic need, and we have counselors that go into the foster homes and work with the kids.”
November is National Adoption Awareness Month, and Ortner said adoption is a huge part of what they do at Youth Villages, but they are not an adopt-only agency. “Families that are interested in adoption with us must first get certified as foster parents,” Ortner said.
If a family is thinking about adoption, Ortner said there are adoption profiles on the Youth Villages website, youthvillages.org, where you’ll find information about some of the children in Youth Villages care who are adoptable.
“We hope that Adoption Awareness Month can help raise awareness of the continuing need for parents for youths in the child welfare system,” said Ortner.
Ortner said there is a huge need in Tennessee for foster parents, with over 8,000 children currently in foster care. Youth Villages serves young people 0-17, and there is a special need for children over the age of 8.
Foster parents must go through a training and certification process that can take anywhere from three to six months, there is no charge for the training, and with the current COVID-19 pandemic, the training is virtual.
There were concerns that finding foster parents during the pandemic would be a bigger problem, but Ortner said in Montgomery County, people have really stepped up and gone through the training and certification process to be able to take these children into their homes.
To learn more about Youth Villages in Clarksville, becoming a foster parent, or adoption, visit youthvillages.org, email Shelby Ortner at Shelby.Ortner@youthvillages.org, or call 1-888-MY-YVKID (699-8543).