500 families; 4,860 kids: Sask. promotes referral money to recruit new foster families

The Saskatchewan government is hoping a monetary incentive might encourage foster families to recruit other people willing to take children into their home.

Under a referral program, foster familiesreceive $200for each successful family they suggest.

The cash incentives for referring have been around since 2009.

A steady decline

The number of foster families in Saskatchewan keeps dropping.As of June 2016, there were 500 foster families but 4,860kids in the system, according to data from the Ministry of Social Services.

Two years earlier, there were were 567 families.

"There has been a steady decline,"said Ministry of Social Services spokeswomanTobieEberhardt, adding that's consistentacross North America.

"Noticing that decline, that's when we said we really need to put our focus on both recruitment and retention."

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She said the increasing need for new families is whythe ministry has drawn attention back to the referral program, and the campaign is just a piece of other ongoing work.

Any money helps, more support needed

For Saskatoon resident Will Brooks, who has been a foster parentwith his partner for three years,cash forreferrals don't mean much.

There are not enough foster parents; there are not enough supports.- Will Brooks

"Having that kind of cash incentive isn't going to be a make or break for us on whether or not we encourage people to be foster families, because we're going to do that anyway," he said.

However, he said the cash incentive could inspire some people to spread the word.If it does, he'll behappy.

'They're desperate'

ChrisGardinerdoesn't thinkthe referralprogram is a good idea.

He and his partner Shannon have been foster parents to the same boy for nearly two decades. They were considered an emergency family at first, and were only supposed to have him for a weekend.

Gardinersaid his experiences have led him to bevocalabout changes or lack thereof within the foster system.

"They're desperate," he said."The problem that they're having is they're not doing good work."

He said he'd be hardpressed to recommend fostering to anyone.

"Until the system is actually more open and transparent, and it's in a better position to support people, and actually put kids first, 200 bucks isn'tgoing to do it."

Their foster son has unique needs, and they had tofight to keep himafter he 'aged out' of the system.

Need to focus on prevention

Saskatchewan children's advocate CoreyO'Soupsaid recruitment of foster families is necessary, but there's a bigger issue at hand.

"The number one issue we need to focus on is more prevention and ensuring our children aren't going into foster care," he said.

He added he also supports more investment in the system as a whole.

However, he isn't opposed to providing monetary incentivesif it helps get more good foster parents.