Some 2,000 children are in care in the province, a high number given the province’s relatively small population, and while there are some 1,000 fosters homes in Newfoundland and Labrador – “it’s not enough.”

Executive Director of Foster Families NL, Kelli Hodder welcomes increased financial support for foster families and family members who take in children announced yesterday.

She says it’s important that they expand the number of households willing to take in a child or children.

She says even with 1,000 foster homes, they still have children who come into care with no home available – some of whom end up in a short-term emergency placement, or in an ALA, “that’s not ideal. Our vision is to see a home for every child.”

They also want to see children stay in their home communities, particularly those in rural and remote areas, like Labrador.

“And that child may then have to leave not only their family, but their home, their school, their friends, their pets, everything that’s familiar to them, and have to come to a foster home which is hundreds of kilometres away, and that’s just more disruption.”