Just as Pam Jones was getting ready to send the last of her children out of the house and into the world, she decided it was important to continue nurturing children, especially those who need it most. So in 2015, Jones became a foster parent. She’s since fostered 16 children.
Jones currently has four foster children — ages 6, 5, 3 and 2 — and is in the process of adopting the two oldest. She said she prefers to take in younger children because they’re “sweet” and “easy to get along with.”
“I like the little kids because you can give them a foundation,” said Jones, who is also a licensed childcare provider. “Some of the little kids, they don’t get a foundation where they come from.”
Building that foundation includes things many take for granted. Jones, 48, said many of the children who come to her don’t have some of the basics such as clean clothes and toys, so she makes sure to get them things that they can claim as their own: clothes, toys, shoes, bikes, blankets.
“They just really need someone to be there for them,” she said. “It’s a lot of things they do not get between newborn and 5. I’m a parent. … The same thing I gave to [my children], I can give to someone else.”
Jones has four kids of her own, all of whom are out of the house now. With May being National Foster Care Month and May 12 being Mother’s Day, Jones, who also has five grandchildren, reflected on the praise she’s sure to receive by saying being a mother simply “comes natural to me.”
Her youngest child, 21-year-old Jordan Macklin, is a student at St. Francis University in Fort Wayne. He was in high school when his mother started fostering children and said she’s treated his siblings and the foster children the same: They have lots of food, good clothes and plenty of toys.
“She’s a caring woman,” he said. “Kudos to her. I don’t know if I could do it. The fact that she’s willing to take on other kids, she’s a good mom.”
Jones said she does take two- or three-week breaks occasionally from fostering children — other than the two she’s adopting — but other than that she’s been helping ease children’s burdens for four years now.
The work people like Jones do is important, especially as Indiana and the rest of the country try to figure out how to address disparities in the foster care system. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation Kids Count Data Center, 21% of foster care children waiting to be adopted in Indiana in 2016 were Black. For comparison, Black youth under 18 years old made up 9.7% of the state’s population at the last census check in 2010.
Terry Stigdon, director of the Indiana Department of Child Services, said in a brief interview her department needs to use its increased funding from the Indiana State Legislature — a $256 million increase for 2020 and $246 million for 2021, still below the department’s $286 million request — to focus more on preventing children from needing to enter the foster care system in the first place.
Stigdon said the department is “doing some research now into that,” but at least part of that includes implicit bias training — the Undoing Racism workshop is one example — for foster care workers and families.
“Are we making different decisions for children based on their background, primarily African American children?” she said. “We’re doing that digging, but we’re not waiting for the numbers to come. We’re working on it now.”
The department announced in February it would extend foster care services to 23 years old for those who don’t feel ready to leave at 20, the current ceiling.
Contact staff writer Tyler Fenwick at 317-762-7853. Follow him on Twitter @Ty_Fenwick.
Interested in becoming a foster parent? Here are a few resources.
Indiana Department of Child Services, in.gov/dcs
• 302 W. Washington St., Room E306
• 1-800-457-8283
The Villages, villageskids.org
• 3833 N. Meridian St.
• 317-775-6500
Children’s Bureau, childrensbureau.org
• 1575 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St.
• 317-634-5050
KidsFirst Adoption Services, kidsfirstadoption.com
• 9135 N. Meridian St., B-4
• 317-843-2300
Bethany Christian Services, bethony.org
• 7168 Graham Road
• 317-578-5000
Americans for African Adoption, africanadoptions.org
• 8910 Timberwood Drive
• 317-271-4567
MLJ Adoptions International, mljadoptions.com
• 6323 S. East St.
• 317-875-0058
