Foster parents from 10 jurisdictions across the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia have been named 2020 Foster Parents of the Year by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG).

COG partners with local and state child welfare agencies around the region to recognize these outstanding parents on an annual basis. Child welfare workers strive to keep families together, but when that it not possible, foster families can provide the necessary support.

“It’s an honor to recognize these amazing parents and the stability and sense of family that they provide for the region’s children in need,” said Erica Serrano, Arlington County Department of Human Services Outreach and Recruitment Specialist and Foster Care Advisory Committee Chair. “We hope that their stories inspire other families to consider opening their lives and their homes as a resource parent.”

The 2020 Foster Parents of the Year are listed below with a summary from their award nominations. The Foster Parents of the Year will also be recognized before the COG Board of Directors in September.

City of Alexandria Foster Parent of the Year: Venor Biggs

Venor Biggs is known as a foster parent with a big heart. He provides youth with structure and expectations while giving them enriching experiences involving art, culture, travel, food, and family. He currently has two foster youth placed with him that are a part of a set of seven siblings. He has seamlessly incorporated the youth’s siblings into their weekly, and often daily, activities.

Arlington County Foster Parent of the Year: Claudia Morales

Claudia Morales was approved as a foster parent in 2015 and has since had nine children join her family. Those who have worked with Morales describe her as incredibly flexible, a true nurturer of both the children and their families, and someone always willing to go above and beyond. Morales may be found donating toys around the holidays, supporting recruitment efforts at community events, or taking leave so that she can be home with children who need extra support.

Charles County Foster Parents of the Year: Amy and Michael Bagley

The Bagley family strives to ensure that the children in their home feel loved, taken care of, and safe. Most recently, they played an integral part in supporting a set of siblings while they were in their home. They continued to provide support to the children’s birth father when the children transitioned to a trial home visit, helping pick the children up from daycare at times. This allowed the children to reunify with their father in under 12 months.

District of Columbia Foster Parents of the Year: Barbara Edwards and Tim Jones

This family of native Washingtonians has fostered more than 28 children and youth since 2008, has adopted one child, and at the time of nomination, were discussing adoption resources for a second child. The familial support they provide extends far beyond the walls of their physical home. The Edwards-Jones' have actively embraced shared-parenting, and in all cases work toward reunifications with biological families.

Fairfax County Foster Parents of the Year: Danielle and Jesse Dredge

The Dredge family has provided Fairfax foster children with stability, structure, nurturing, and connection. The Dredge family has fostered a sibling set of brothers, a teen mother and her child, and a teen male. With each placement they have been influential in how they manage the children’s adjustment to their placement, provide interventions and strategies when children have noted struggles, set clear boundaries, and worked with the child and biological family toward reunification.

Frederick County Foster Parents of the Year: Chris and Leshia Chandler

The Chandlers are described as committed, calm but fierce advocates, educators, and able to navigate the foster care system with compassion and strength. They provide a culturally sensitive home full of love and acceptance grounded in strong values and principles, and have established a lifelong parenting connection with their adoptive daughter's mother. Additionally, the Chandlers are actively involved in recruiting and training new potential resource families within the community.

Loudoun County Foster Parents of the Year: Justin and Rebecca Heim

From their very first placement the Heims have exemplified what it means to be in service to others. Every single child, birth parent, foster parent, and agency staff with whom they have had contact, has benefitted from their ongoing commitment of support and guidance. Sometimes that support has come in the way of reopening their home to a child once placed with them, providing tangible items (like furnishings) to a birth parent, or even showing encouragement and friendship to other foster parents.

Montgomery County Foster Parents of the Year: John Ward and Marco Beltran
 
John and Marco are described as a wonderful and loving foster family, willing to provide stability and a sense of family. Upon being placed with John and Marco, their foster child was provided with structure and routine, encouraged to pursue his interests, and included in family vacations and activities. John and Marco have nurtured the relationship between the child and his biological mother as well as with other biological relatives and are always willing and able to do whatever is needed of them to make sure those connections remain stable.

Prince George's County Foster Parents of the Year: George and Ernestine Barksdale
 
The Barksdales have been foster parents in Prince George's County for ten years, opening their hearts and home to many foster children varying in ages, often accepting respite and emergency placements. They have seen at least three teens off to college. Currently, the Barksdales are in the process of accepting guardianship of their 14-year-old foster daughter.

Prince William County Foster Parents of the Year: Chris and Stephanie Alger

Chris and Stephanie Alger have been the long-term placement for three young children, and have provided many days of respite care. All three of the foster children placed at the Alger home have had multiple special needs that have required appointments with numerous medical specialists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, vision specialists, and attachment/trauma therapists. Their first placement progressed toward adoption. The Algers embrace “Bridging the Gap,” and are dedicated to reunification, and are role models for all foster parents.