RACINE — The Racine County Foster Care Program has launched a new campaign to help keep Racine County foster children in the community.

The Bring Them Home campaign has two central goals: to recruit and license new foster homes in Racine County and bring back local children who were placed in homes outside the county. The campaign comes as the county has experienced a foster care crisis, seeing both a rise in the number of children placed in foster care and a decline in local foster homes.

Keeping foster children in the community allows siblings to stay together and potentially shorten the length of time children are in out-of-home care, officials say. Siblings being separated from each other deepens the trauma facing foster children, who already are forced away from their family home.

“If we bring them home, settling into a foster placement is less traumatic. If we bring them home, the likelihood of sibling groups remaining together is increased. If we bring them home, their emotional and mental well being is more stable,” said Marie Hargrove, Racine County foster care recruitment and retention specialist. “If we bring them home, children are more likely to be reunified with their birth families more quickly than those who are placed outside of their community.”

Rebranding effort

The Bring Them Home campaign represents a rebranding of the county’s foster care work. The effort will include a social media blitz, videos, grassroots outreach, advertising and much more. Racine County Foster Care is working with filmmaker Joey Papa, who previously produced a short film, “(Un)wanted,” about the local foster care crisis.

Those who would like to join Racine County Foster Care in the Bring Them Home Campaign should contact Marie Hargrove at 262-638-6595 to find out how to get involved. For more information, visit BringThemHomeRacine.com.

“If we bring them home, children are more likely to be reunified with their birth families more quickly than those who are placed outside of their community.” Marie Hargrove, Racine County foster care recruitment and retention specialist.