INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Child advocates in Indiana are urging more families to get involved in foster care. The call comes as part of “Family Week” on WISH-TV’s Daybreak.

“Today, in the state of Indiana, there are over 3,500 Children in foster care,” says Shannon Schumacher, CEO of The Villages of Indiana – a not-for-profit child and family services agency that has a strong focus on foster care.

Our conversation turned to the relatively new fostering concept of “Co-care,” in which the biological parents and foster parents welcome each other into their lives and work together to help the child.

“For many, many years, there was kind of a hard boundary between foster parents and biological parents, and we know that that was devastating for Children,” Schumacher explains. “Adversarial relationships are very difficult for Children experiencing foster care. So the outcomes have improved immensely when you have that collaborative relationship with the foster parents and the biological parents.”

The Villages offers information sessions, parent training, and continuing support for foster families. If you are interested, start your journey here.

“We’re always trying to recruit and support foster families,” Schumacher said. “So if there’s anyone out there who is interested in becoming a foster parent, The Villages helps walk you through the licensing process. It’s pretty involved, as well it should be. And then walking alongside, hand by hand, through the placement of children into their homes as they open their hearts and their homes, too.”

In explaining how foster families can help both the child and the birth parents, Schumacher relays this perspective: “I think one of our foster moms said it best. She said, ‘The parents are in the worst crisis of their lives when a child is removed from their home… and we have possession of their most precious resource.’”