 The need for foster parents is great in Kentucky, especially in eastern Kentucky. If you've ever thought of becoming a foster parent, it's not as difficult as you might think. According to Amity Smallwood, a foster care adoption social worker with the Cabinet for Health and Human Services, the first thing you need to do is apply. It would be 21 years of age to foster. Both foster parents in your home have to be that age. You do have to pass a background check, a criminal background check. You have to have enough finances to cover your current household, and you have to have enough room in a safe, stable home for more. After you are approved, you are not alone. As Sandy Reid, who is a mentor through the University of Kentucky and is a foster parent herself, explains, you will have support. Once Amity approves a home, then they are assigned a mentor for six months. And that's a relationship that you have with this family. And that you're there for them, you make contacts with them, you meet with them, and you just help them along the way in their first six months of their journey. And that usually don't end at six months. It usually has never ended for me with their families. Training classes are available to new foster parents. We offer a building foundation's pre-service curriculum that is required of all new foster parents going through the home city process. And then after they are approved, they are required to do yearly training. So they continually receive training throughout the life of their foster care career. If you would like more information, please call 606-433-7596. New classes for Pike County will be starting soon. There will be an informational meeting September 26 at 6 p.m. with classes October 19th and 26th at the Cornerstone Christian Church in Pikeville.