Fostering the Future: How Roanoke Families Can Help Kids in Foster Care

Originally written by Kimberly Emory for Roanoke Family’s Growing Up in the Valley magazine, December 2023.
Updated May 2026.

What foster children need, what the community can do, and what it’s really like to open your home

Fostering is one of those topics most people understand in theory. There is a need, children need homes, and families step up, but few people truly understand what foster care looks like day to day or how an ordinary person in Roanoke can make a meaningful difference.

Roanoke Director of Human and Social Services Gwendolyn C. Coleman explains it simply: the City of Roanoke’s foster care program provides a temporary, safe home for children while the goal remains reunification with family or finding another permanent living arrangement. “At its heart, foster care is families helping families,” she says. 

250 children were in foster care in Roanoke, including 55 placed with relatives, 35 in congregate care, and 39 young adults receiving continued support through the Fostering Futures program, which helps those ages 18 to 21 with housing, education, and essential life skills. 

What Does DSS Actually Need?

The most pressing need is straightforward: more foster families.

Children in the foster system benefit most from family homes, not group facilities or therapeutic placements they do not need. When local families cannot provide placements, the system relocates children who have already left their homes and neighborhoods to entirely different parts of the state. For a child already navigating trauma, that loss of consistency and community is its own harm.

“The City of Roanoke needs foster families, particularly those willing to care for school-aged children and teenagers, and those willing to support short-term placements and overnight stays,”  Coleman says. 

There’s an additional dynamic worth understanding: many foster families end up adopting the children placed with them, which is wonderful, but means they’re no longer available for new placements. Roanoke City has had some of the highest adoption numbers in the state in recent years. That’s a success story that creates a new challenge. The pipeline of available families needs to be continuously replenished.

How the Community Can Help Right Now

You don’t have to become a foster parent to make a meaningful difference. Foster families in the Roanoke Valley say some of the greatest needs are often practical, everyday support.

Meals. When a child enters a new placement, the transition can overwhelm everyone as they adjust. Logan Walker, a Roanoke foster parent, says meals were one of the biggest immediate helps: “When a child is placed in your home, it is a big adjustment for everyone, so having some meals already prepared was one less thing we had to think about.” Church ministries like Fellowship Community Church’s Empty Chair program provide meal trains for families with new placements, and Matthew’s Child also offers a meals program for foster families.

Clothing and essentials. Foster children often arrive with few or no belongings. Corinne Paxton, a Franklin County foster parent with nearly two decades of experience, says, “These kids come to you with nothing. I mean nothing.” Clothes, toiletries, diapers, wipes, formula, baby equipment, and school supplies can make an immediate difference. Matthew’s Child provides resources including a clothing closet, survival kits, and a car seat program.

Holiday gifts. A child entering foster care during the holidays can create added challenges. Donations of toys, clothing, and gifts through organizations like Matthew’s Child help ensure children feel welcomed and cared for.

Transportation. For foster families, especially those in rural areas, appointments and visitations can create a major time commitment. Offering rides or helping with transportation can be a valuable gift.

Respite care and mentorship. Becoming a trained respite provider allows foster parents to take a needed break while ensuring children remain in a safe, supportive environment. Older youth in foster care often need trusted adults to teach life skills like budgeting, cooking, job searching, and managing a home.

What Foster Kids Want You to Know

Michelle Warren, who coordinates Empty Chair’s foster family support, offers the clearest framing: “Kids are not in care because they did anything wrong — it’s that their parents can’t care for them.”

Paxton echoes this from years of experience: “They want people to see they’re normal people, not crazy, not rejects. They’re not what they came from. They have issues, but they want a family. They want a chance to succeed.”

Foster children sometimes display difficult behaviors. Those behaviors are the result of trauma, not character. They are manageable, and they change.

“Children in foster care should not be defined only by the challenges they have experienced. Like their peers, these children are navigating adolescence and need supportive adults, stable environments and opportunities to succeed,” Coleman says. 

Should I Foster?

It’s a question many families quietly consider, especially when they learn how many children need safe, stable homes in their community. Families often start the foster journey by asking one honest question: could this be something our family is called to do?

Walker’s answer is one of the most honest in any conversation about foster care: “If you are on the fence about foster care, or have been thinking about how you could play a part in helping a child, you should definitely reach out for more information. We feel like it is our duty to care for these children, and we can’t ignore the need.”

Warren pushes back on the common hesitation, the fear of getting too attached. “That’s just what these kids need,” she says simply. 

Paxton has fostered for nearly two decades, with between 50 and 55 placements and 10 adoptions. Her adopted children are old enough to have graduated with honors. Former placements visit her. “We know we’ve made a connection. We didn’t do a thing except give them food, shelter, clothing, and family. I don’t regret any of it.”

Walker’s summary is worth sitting with: “Choosing to foster has turned out to be the biggest blessing in our lives. It is not easy by any means, but it is so worth it.”

Getting Involved

Roanoke City Department of Social Services: roanokeva.gov: Social-Services — information on becoming a licensed foster family

Empty Chair (Fellowship Community Church): For meal train support, respite care training, and volunteer opportunities

Matthew’s Child: Clothing, supplies, and first-night kits for foster children and families in the Roanoke Valley

HopeTree Family Services: hopetreefs.org | (540) 389-5468  — foster and adoptive family services in Southwest Virginia

Roanoke County DSS: roanokecountyva.gov: Social-Services — foster family information for Roanoke County residents 

Originally written by Kimberly Emory for Roanoke Family’s Growing Up in the Valley magazine, December 2023. Updated May 2026.