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January 24, 2014

Korean American Family Services (KFAM) launches Korean Foster Family Initiative (KFFI)

Executive director of Korean American Family Services Connie Chung Joe, right, is announcing their new Korean Foster Family Initiative to recruit Korean foster parents to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate homes for Asian/Korean foster children on Wednesday. (Park Sang-hyuk)

Korean American Family Services Executive Director Connie Chung Joe, right, announces the new Korean Foster Family Initiative to recruit Korean foster parents to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate homes for Asian and Korean foster children on Wednesday. (Park Sang-hyuk)

Each year, nearly 800,000 children are temporarily removed from their parents’ care for reasons ranging from neglect and abandonment to abuse. In contrast, there are roughly 240,000 foster families to care for them.

Specifically, there are 57 Korean American children in the Los Angeles County Foster care system currently, but there remains NO actively licensed foster families of Korean descent in Los Angeles County to serve as a match. NONE!

Because of the fact that children of immigrant households often do not learn English until they start Kindergarten or perhaps even later, it is imperative that they are placed in Korean homes. Being placed in non-ethnic specific foster families that lack knowledge about the children’s language, food or culture can compound the existing anxiety, confusion and trauma.

Philip Browning, head of Los Angeles County’s Department of Children and Family Services, says, “Every day we get about eight or 10 calls from the Asian Pacific community.” He estimated the number of Asian children in the county foster system to be around 800.

In response, the Korean American Family Services of Los Angeles (KFAM) started the Korean Foster Family Initiative (KFFI) campaign to bring awareness of this deficit and ultimately recruit Korean families to become licensed foster care providers through the Los Angeles County DCFS (Department of Children and Family Services).

For more information, call Estee Song, Project Manager at 1-844-K-FAMILY (1-844-532-6459)

or visit http://kfamla.org/programs-services/korean-foster-care-program/