Page 20 - South Mississippi Living - December, 2023

COAST NOTE
photos courtesy of Southern Christian Services
story by
Cherie Ward
FROM FOSTER
TO FOREVER Southern Christian Services Help Children Find Their Forever Families
Hundreds of Gulf Coast children are placed into foster care each year at no fault of their own and usually after experiencing some sort of crisis. But they have a strong, local advocate always ready to go above and beyond for them.
Southern Christian Services for Children and Youth, Inc. provides children and family services on the Gulf Coast and throughout the Magnolia State. The staff works tirelessly year-round to help vulnerable children with a myriad of solutions and raise awareness about adoption and foster care.
“Our organization specifically works with families who want to foster to adopt a child,” said Mary Beth Burdick, LMSW, who is the Therapeutic Foster Care Director at the Gulfport office. There are other locations in Jackson and Tupelo. “The goal is always to reunite kids with biological families, but it doesn’t always work out so there is a need for adoptive homes,” she said.
Mississippi currently has about 3,671 children in the custody of Child Protective Services with Jackson and Harrison counties topping the statewide list. Jackson County reported 248 children and Harrison County reported 209. “And at least 30 percent of those kids will not be able to return to their biological relatives for different reasons, so the state is required to find them adoptive homes,” she said.
The organization helps people become licensed as foster parents and then after six months they're eligible to adopt. “We recruit families, and we train families,” she added.
“We license families by state regulations just like CPS does and all of our services are free. We are a private, nonprofit organization, but we still do not charge our families to become licensed foster to adopt parents and we help them every step of the way.”
And there are lots of programs open to anyone in the community such as parenting classes, parenting support, and post-adoption and respite courses. “The state has a lot of stipulations on who can babysit foster kids,” she said. “That’s why there are respite families to help foster parents when they need a weekend break or have an emergency come up.”
The organization also provides separate therapeutic group homes for boys and girls and the girls facility accepts adolescent girls who have been victims of human and sex trafficking.
“We get them the services and trauma therapy that they need to heal,” Burdick said.
Please visit www.scscy.org for additional information about adoption, foster care, or ways you can help. There are currently holiday and toy campaigns accepting donations.
20 | December 2023
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