AUGUSTA — KidsPeace, a 133-year-old children’s service organization, has been selected by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services to lead efforts to recruit foster families for Maine’s population of vulnerable foster children.

The program, “A Family for ME,” seeks to ensure an adequate number of foster families for Maine’s children who are in the foster care system and for whom a foster or adoptive home placement is needed.

The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Child and Family Services has recently brought attention to the shortage of foster families throughout Maine. Nearly 2,000 children are in foster care throughout the state. The majority of these children are temporarily in foster care while their parents resolve safety concerns and progress toward reunification with them.

When reunification is not successful, children become members of a permanent family through adoption. Of those children currently in foster care, approximately 100 are in need of an identified family interested in adopting them.

KidsPeace operates foster care and community programs sites in York, Cumberland, Androscoggin, Penobscot and Aroostook counties, including therapeutic foster care, home and community treatment, targeted case management, an alternative response program and outpatient mental health for children and adults.

As the need for homes exists across the state, KidsPeace is launching a widespread, comprehensive and coordinated public relations campaign to raise awareness about the urgent need for families. Toward achievement of this goal, KidsPeace will partner with other agencies, community members, donors, professions, families and DHHS.

In addition to a general need to increase the number of licensed foster families, there is a special need to identify foster families interested in providing temporary homes for children in specific situations:

• sibling pairs and groupings to prevent further separation of the birth family;

• babies who are born drug-impacted who are in the process of reunification with their parents;

• older youths with mental health or developmental issues with accompanying behavioral issues.

In addition to recruitment efforts to increase the number of families available to Maine’s foster youth, KidsPeace has also accepted the responsibility of finding potential adoptive families for children identified by DHHS as needing a permanent placement.

Information for anyone interested in learning more about becoming a foster or adoptive family is available at www.fostercare.com/a-family-for-me or by calling 1-844-893-6311.

For additional resources or more information on how to get involved, become a foster parent or make a donation, go to www.kidspeace.org or www.facebook.com/kidspeace.org.