There’s a foster care crisis in America. Nationally, more than 390,000 children are in foster care. In West Virginia, that’s just over 6,000 children who need a safe place to call home. Last year, more than half of all states saw their number of licensed homes drop, some as high as 60 percent. That challenge comes because new foster parents don’t stay in the system for long.
On this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay hears about the shortage of licensed foster homes. Foster care is most often needed because of parental substance use, mental health challenges, poverty and neglect.
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While official foster care cases are tracked and overseen by state agencies and nonprofit organizations, there are many informal kinds of so-called kinship care that are not official or included in state data. Some experts say the number of those kinship cases drives the stakes of the challenge much higher.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council, CRC Foundation and Daywood Foundation. Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond.
Dominic Snuffer was 5 when he and his four younger siblings went into the first of their foster care homes.
“I was in several foster care situations… I think three or four. It always seemed short and seemed as if we were getting bounced around. The hard part was probably just the beginning, how much I just always try to keep my siblings in check. I felt as if, if they behaved in a way, just like the other situations we might get taken away. It feels like yesterday that I got adopted. It went by fast. The things that make me smile was definitely adoption day. ‘Cause I knew, I finally found a family and I could try and live out the rest of my childhood.”
— Dominic Snuffer
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Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Larry Cooper is executive vice president of Innovation at The Children’s Home Network (CHN) of Tampa Bay, Florida. The agency works with kids in the foster care system and also provides services to prevent and support families from ever entering into the foster care system. Cooper has worked at CHN for more than 20 years, and he’s spent 8 years licensing foster homes while recruiting and training new foster parents. Cooper says some of the challenges bringing in new foster parents comes from an approval process that’s strict for a reason – but can take more than 12 months. A lot of people drop out along the way.
“You might fall off because of just life experiences that you may be going through. You might have a change in jobs. You might have an illness in your family. You might have a death in the family. And so I used to see for every 100 parents that I recruited, I might get only four to six families actually get a kid into their home for every hundred that would call me and be interested in becoming a foster parent.”
— Larry Cooper
Photo Credit: The Children’s Home Network
Marc and Brandi Wilson live in St. Clairsville, Ohio — just across the river from Wheeling, West Virginia. Brandi was a Child Protective Services worker in West Virginia for 20 years. One day back in 2014, her work at the Department of Health and Human Resources and her personal life collided when they became foster parents to a baby related to Marc.
“They both took the stand and said that they give up the rights to their child, I just started breaking down. [Brandi] was sitting beside me like this and she looked over at me. She said, ‘What’s wrong?’ I said, ‘I can never imagine saying that about my own child.’ She was kind of numb to it because she’s worked in the field. It was hard to hear somebody say that.” — Marc Wilson
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“It wasn’t until he was sitting next to me in the courtroom that I realized not everybody hears relinquishment. Not everybody hears abuse, neglect. Not everybody hears that – as CPS workers [this is] just everyday language. So once I was with him and realized, OK, this isn’t everybody’s life. They may have drug issues, domestic violence, gangs coming in and out of their home, but these words are not everyday life for a lot of people.” — Brandi Wilson
Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Rachel Kinder supervises The Kinship Navigator Program with Mission West Virginia, a nonprofit that’s been around since 1997. Kinder has been working with the foster care system for more than two decades, and has seen lots of trends. In 2019, there was a record high of 7,200 children in West Virginia’s foster care system. She says, while it’s one thing to count the legal cases overseen by the Department of Human Services, there are many informal kinds of kinship care that are not official or included in state data.
“I can tell you the number of kids in formal care, so if there are 6,078 kids in foster care in West Virginia, right now 58 percent of those are in kinship relative placements. For kids in informal care, where grandma or an aunt or some type of relative or even what we call fictive* kin has stepped in, it’s almost impossible to get numbers on that.”
— Rachel Kinder
*Fictive care refers to placements where a foster parent knows the child but is not related to them. This could be a teacher, family friend or a neighbor.
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Photo Credit: Mission West Virginia
There’s a clear need for foster families across the nation and in West Virginia. Nikki and Louisa Snuffer knew they would consider becoming foster parents when it came time for them to start a family. There’s a lot going on at their Sissonville home. The couple currently has 12 children, ranging from ages 10 months to 20 years old. Plus, they breed French Bulldogs.
“It actually was a pretty easy decision, because we were both on the same page almost always with helping people. I’ve known since probably my early high school years that I did want to do foster care. However, we really wanted no more than maybe three. And the way life and things happen, we got five at one time. I have two brothers who were put in foster care that I never knew and I still don’t know. So we made a commitment that when we got into it, that we would never split up families.” — Louisa Snuffer
“If they call us for a sibling group, we’re not going to say no to them because that was our number one belief. Like, ‘We need to do whatever we can to keep siblings together.’ When we were initially approved, we were approved for four children. So, DHHR told us we could have four children in the house, given the space. And that was kind of our cap. I said, ‘Maybe we’ll do three tops,’ you know, that seems like a manageable number. And the very first call we got for placement was a sibling group of five. Of course we said yes. We had to do a few things to get approved for a fifth child. They moved in with us. Things went great.” — Nikki Snuffer
Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Nikki Snuffer is holding her granddaughter. Many of the children the Snuffers have cared for, they know through Nikki’s job at Winfield High School. She’s an instructor for the Future Leaders Program, which is the National Guard’s high school curriculum that’s taught by veterans. In the program, students learn leadership and life skills, science, career prep and other subjects.
“[For] my kids that have gone to Winfield, I make them go through the [Future Leaders] program. Not because I’m teaching it, but because even if it wasn’t me, I’d want them to get these skills. It’s the kind of things that are forgotten these days.”
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— Nikki Snuffer
Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
The Iona Gaels (1-3) face the West Virginia Mountaineers (2-1) on Wednesday, November 20, 2024 at WVU Coliseum. It tips at 7:00 PM ET on ESPN+.
West Virginia lost to Pittsburgh 86-62 on the road in its last game. Its top performers were Jonathan Powell (16 PTS, 50.00 FG%, 4-10 from 3PT) and Javon Small (12 PTS, 2 STL, 35.71 FG%).
In its most recent game, Iona was a winner at home over Vermont 62-59, with Dejour Reaves (22 PTS, 3 STL, 43.75 FG%) and James Patterson (18 PTS, 2 STL, 53.85 FG%, 2-6 from 3PT) leading the way.
Ahead of this college hoops showdown, here’s what you need to get ready for Wednesday’s action.
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West Virginia Mountaineers vs. Iona Gaels
Game day: Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Game time: 7:00 PM ET
TV: ESPN+
Live stream: ESPN+ – Watch NOW
NCAA Basketball Odds and Betting Lines
Spread: West Virginia -14.5
Total: 147.5
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Jordan Harrison scored 20 points and No. 13 West Virginia used a strong second quarter to defeat Bowling Green 78-47 on Tuesday night.
The Falcons hung with the Mountaineers for one quarter, trailing 18-15. West Virginia scored the first six points on the second quarter and closed with an 11-0 run with 3-pointers from three different players to lead 37-19 at the break.
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The Mountaineers were 8 of 15 from the field while the Falcons were 2 of 12 with nine turnovers.
JJ Quinerly added 14 points with six assists and four steals and Celia Riviere had 11 points off the bench for West Virginia (4-0), which shot 53% from the field but made just 12 of 21 free throws and had 16 turnovers.
Amy Velasco scored 18 points for the Falcons (2-3), who had 27 turnovers that cost them 36 points.
Velasco had three 3s and 11 points in the third quarter when Bowling Green cut a 20-point deficit to 13 but Jordan Thomas and Kylee Blacksten had two layups each and Kyah Watson capped an 11-0 burst with a 3-pointer and the lead was 55-31.
A 15-0 run in the fourth quarter cemented the rout.
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Only six of 133 FBS teams, and two at the Power Conference level, allow more passing yards on average than West Virginia in 2024.
No Power Conference program is surrendering more yards per completion than the 14.19 of the Mountaineers, which ranks ahead of only three FBS teams.
Yet as West Virginia (5-5, 4-3) looks to gain bowl eligibility come 3:30 p.m. Saturday when welcoming Central Florida, the Mountaineer run defense has come into question for good reason.
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In last Saturday’s 49-35 loss to Baylor, West Virginia surrendered a season-high 5.38 yards per rush as the Bears gained 183 yards on the ground and 512 in all. Only Penn State (222) and Kansas (247) had rushed for more yards this season against the Mountaineers.
Now comes the top rushing attack among major programs in UCF, which rushes for 262.8 yards on average to trail only Army among FBS teams.
Of UCF’s 240 first downs gained this season, 141 have come on rushing plays. Compare that to a run-heavy Mountaineer offense that’s generated 223 total first downs and 109 by way of rushing.
Leading the way for one of the more productive rushing attacks in all of college football is fifth-year tailback RJ Harvey, the nation’s third-leading rusher with 1,328 yards and 19 touchdowns on 196 attempts.
“You have to keep great edges on the defense,” WVU defensive coordinator Jeff Koonz said. “You have to keep technique all 11 guys across the board. If you’re the back side guy pursuing the ball, you have to keep technique and keep your shoulders square. He’s a threat to go anywhere at anytime. He understands the blocking and their scheme. It’s a great challenge for us because it all bases off the inside zone scheme that we just saw against Baylor.”
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Another productive outing in Morgantown would allow Harvey to surpass his rushing total of 1,416 yards from last season, when the Orlando native scored 16 times on the ground.
Harvey has faced West Virginia once before, and although the Mountaineers were victorious 41-28 in Orlando last season, the tailback managed 100 yards on 14 carries along with four receptions for 30 yards.
At 5-foot-9 and 208 pounds, Harvey has a combination of power and patience that helps to make him a tough tackle.
“His ability to break tackles and once he gets past the defensive line and linebackers, he can get striking,” said WVU defensive lineman T.J. Jackson, the team leader in sacks and tackles for loss with 5.5 and 12, respectively. “He’s really fast.”
Harvey has rushed for at least 75 yards in every game this season, 126-plus yards on seven occasions and 127 or more yards in four straight contests, during which time he’s totaled 634 yards and 10 touchdowns on 88 carries.
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“The thing that sticks out to me is he breaks tackles,” WVU head coach Neal Brown said. “He does a really good on the inside zone play of getting the safeties and everybody to kind of bottle up and he jump cuts it outside and outruns them. That’s going to be the key. The key is to contain him and not let him get on the perimeter for explosives.”
Nov 16, 2024; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; Baylor Bears running back Bryson Washington (30) runs the ball for a touchdown during the second quarter against the West Virginia Mountaineers at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn Images
Brown has been critical of the Mountaineers’ tackling in each of their last two contests since Koonz has took over as defensive coordinator after the head coach opted for a change three weeks ago today when previous defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley was dismissed.
“We didn’t tackle as well as we needed to at Cincinnati. We tackled really poorly in the first half against Baylor. It was bad,” Brown said. “If we’re going to have the ability to contain their run game, then we’re going to have to tackle at a much higher level.”
WVU has allowed a staggering 948 yards in those two games, though in the first one at Cincinnati, the Mountaineers forced a season-high three takeaways and two amounted to defensive touchdowns in a 31-24 victory.
Baylor then scored touchdowns on five of its six first-half possessions and twice more in the fourth quarter to seal a 49-35 victory and prevent the Mountaineers from putting together consecutive encouraging efforts.
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“We have to have guys attack the ball with leverage,” Koonz said. “We have to understand our leverage. In week 10, you’re probably tired of hearing that. Every coverage and front has a leverage aspect to it. If I’m playing my position and I get to the ball-carrier, I have to attack that ball-carrier with certain leverage, so that if I do miss the tackle, someone else should be close if we’re playing with the effort we’re supposed to be.”
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