This week's show is a great example of why I'm doing this and what I've missed since I left radio. On this episode, I speak with Shannon Siebert of Washington County Foster Closet to talk about her organization and the importance of supporting children in foster care—as well as foster families—in Washington County, Wisconsin.
The Washington County Foster Closet supports our area children by providing clothing and supplies to foster families. Imagine getting a call that three teen children are going to be placed with your family in the next half hour! Being prepared for all ages, sizes, and genders of children would be impossible as a foster family, and the Washington County Foster Closet serves as a resource to the foster families in our area with clothing, supplies, and much needed support.
This is one of those episodes that makes you think and gets you wondering how you can do more for those who are in need in our community, and I truly thank Shannon Siebert and Koa Dautermann for all they do in Washington County.
And on this week's episode, Shannon joins me to talk about the organization and its importance to children and families. Within our local community, I was truly moved by our conversation, and I'm sure you will be too. For
those who don't know, what is the Washington County Foster Closet? And can you give us an overview of the organization and how it helps our area children and families?
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And the reason why we started is because us as foster parents know what it's like to get a call to receive a placement and then have them come with next to nothing.
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But I, I would say COA is in charge of donations. So if you want to donate something, you can. You would contact her. If you are a foster parent or a social worker, and you have needs that need to be filled, you would contact COA. Okay. She has also taken charge of our Christmas event where people sponsor kids.
To make sure that all of our kids have a nice Christmas, and this summer she took on our backpack drive to make sure that all the kids had new backpacks and all the school supplies for the school year. So, shout out to Koa, she is amazing. She's a single mom, she is a teacher, and she's a great teacher.
And when she's not doing that, she's doing this, and she does a great job.
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Yeah, yeah,
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So.
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And she's like, Hey, you should do this. And I. Barely gave it a second thought and I said, yep, I will. And I reached out to our private county page. It's, it's, um, just a private Facebook page for all of us foster parents that are licensed in Washington County. And I said, hey, this is what I want to do. Does anybody want to hop aboard?
And entered COA. Um, so we started in my basement and then we kind of divided up amongst Other basements, and then we had storage units, and now we are here in our, our own building, and we have heat, and a bathroom, and lights, and so much more space, and it's truly amazing. But the biggest thing for me was, you know, we, we taking these kids, and when I started, I was a fairly new foster parent as well, so I was still kind of learning the ropes, but you get a call, and a half hour later, your doorbell rings, and.
You just don't really know what to expect, only to find out that they don't have anything. And my husband travels for work, and oddly enough, every placement that we have received, with the exception of one, he's been out of town for. We had, we had a situation where he was out of town, we had a little boy, we got a call to take in, uh, a sibling group of three.
And 45 minutes later, my doorbell rang and in walked in these three kiddos and they had nothing. And my husband was out of town and I'm, I'm on the phone. I'm calling my, my parents and my in laws and my friends. And I mean, thankfully everybody kind of came to my rescue, but that's not always the case. And we.
So what I tell people for me personally the the best part about the foster closet is Not only just knowing that we can help these families But also the relationships that I've built while doing it prior to the Washington County foster closet I didn't know any other foster parents and Even though my husband and I have a great support system, sometimes you can feel very alone.
Sure. Because there's things that, unless you're doing it and you're living it every day, you just don't quite understand. So, for me, it's getting to know other foster families, sharing our stories, sharing our struggles, and really having that sense of community.
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Those who aren't. Probably don't see it at all. And so what, what, how, how great is the, the need for foster families in, in our county? What does that look like?
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We could have a lull where maybe we do have a couple open homes, but then in a matter of two weeks, we'll have every home that's full. So the need is very high, especially coming off of the coronavirus and, and all the havoc, you know, that, that, that brought. We are sadly expecting to, Get pretty busy over these next couple months, but the need is high.
The thing with being a foster parent, which is great, is that you really can kind of pick and choose who you want to care for. So we have some foster parents that are like, I'm only doing ages three and under or They have other children in the home, so they're only open to one, or some are open to multiple.
So, I will say for certain that the need for taking in teens is extremely high. As far as I know, it's my, my family and I think one other home in the entire county that's open to taking teens. We have a lot of people that are no longer taking toddlers, so we need homes to take toddlers. And then the other biggest need for sure is homes willing to take in sibling groups.
Okay. Because what happens is They'll get split up.
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We love kids. We're great with kids. And we thought, why not? But it wasn't until really getting into it, into the licensing that we realized. How dire it was. I mean, we got a call to take our first placement before our license was even finished yet. Wow. The need is so high. And, and yeah, like you said, it's just so easy to just kind of not think about it.
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And that's kind of how we started, but there's different organizations that you can foster through. St. A's, Foundations, Children's Hospital, they all do foster care. We just chose to work with children in our county.
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We're busy.
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We need gift cards because we don't. store things like undergarments or shoes. Walmart and Kohl's are pretty much the gift cards that we carry. So like a teen comes into care, has no shoes. They get a Kohl's gift card, they can go get themselves a pair of shoes. Awesome. An infant comes into care, we will give them a Walmart gift card to get diapers and formula until they can get their WIC benefits set up.
Gotcha. Those are, those are huge things. Other things that we do, if the funds are available, is provide outings and gatherings for our fellow foster families because as, as Cohen and I know, it's just so important To have people that understand what you're going through. I mean, our motto, what we say almost daily is, it takes a village.
And I, I, I believe that through and through. We want to have adult friendly outings where foster parents can be Breathe a little. Yeah,
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And actually, uh, the newest thing that we are now going to be working on, it was just brought to our attention today, in fact, that we have quite a few kids in out of state care. You know, that could be a whole nother podcast. Sure. But, um, it, it was something that I was not even aware of and it's heartbreaking, the things that I heard.
So we are. In the next week or so, I'm going to be posting looking for families to sponsor these children that don't get any state help whatsoever. Not only are they out of state, but there's, you know, very little family support and really, really could use our help.
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Well,
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Yes, thank
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So if you know of something going on that's grayed in. Hartford or Richfield or Germantown or Hustis Ford is Hustis Ford in Washington County or Dodge County. It's on the edge, but if you know something great going on there, I don't, I That's fine. Even if it's not in Washington County, let me know. Aspen is that Washington County?
Let me know. Not if Aspen's in Washington County. Just if there's something great going on there, send me an email 15 with fuzz@gmail.com. That's 15 F-I-F-T-E-E-N. Spelled out with fuzz at gmail. com or visit visit 15withfuzz. com. New episodes every Monday. Be sure to like and subscribe. Leave a comment positively on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and or Google Podcasts.
And we'll talk to you next week on 15 Minutes with Fuzz.
