Foster Parent Info Meeting in Dundalk

At an informational meeting earlier this year at the North Point Library, Sarah Riker, a social worker for the Department of Social Services, reported that of her 19 county-wide cases, 11 are in Dundalk.

DSS representatives that a goal of the program is to keep children entering foster care in the community in which they already reside.

While not always possible, DSS seeks to avoid uprooting children from their neighborhoods, friends and schools.

With that in mind, the Baltimore County Department of Social Services is holding another informational meeting for potential foster parents at 6:30 p.m.  at the Dundalk Youth Services Center, located at the on Yorkway.

As part of its effort to assist foster care children and families in eastern Baltimore County, the Department of Social Services has also launched a program to assist families before DSS has to remove children. The Baltimore Sun profiled the new program, Our Community Responsibility, earlier this week.

According to the Baltimore Sun, a rising number of children need foster care in eastern Baltimore County.

In 2010, 520 children entered the county's foster care system from eastern Baltimore County, the Sun reported on Sunday. However, only eight of the 215 approved county foster homes were located in Dundalk, where 77 children were added to the system, "the largest number of children of any community in the county," according to the Sun.

- Todd Crandell contributed to this story.