‘Unstuck’ workshop held in Fairmont to facilitate talks on foster care

FAIRMONT, W.Va. (WBOY) — Local parents, advocates and agencies came together in Fairmont Tuesday to participate in a workshop focused on solving issues surrounding foster care in West Virginia.

The “Unstuck” workshop was hosted by the More Than Enough initiative in partnership with Chestnut Mountain Village to start a discussion with locals about child welfare and foster care.

West Virginia has the highest rate of children per capita in foster care in the country, with more than 6,000 children in the system. Professionals believe that West Virginia communities already have the resources they need but are not working together to make the difference that families deserve.

Greg Clutter, the director of Chestnut Mountain Village, spoke with 12 News about those resources already being in the Mountain State.

“We really believe that those resources exist in those individual communities if they were just well-connected. We could solve too many problems before they even got to a place where formal child welfare officials had to be engaged,” Clutter said.

More than 40 people attended the workshop, which included resources, discussion, short activities and presentations by the More than Enough Initiative, which is through the Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO).

Jason Weber, the national director of the More than Enough initiative, spoke with 12 News about the importance of coming together.

“It’s important for us to be able to work together because trying to work on this issue separately just hasn’t gotten the result we need, and we still have children and families falling through the cracks. And if we want the chance to go from providing not enough for our children and families, to providing more than enough, we’re gonna have to do it differently. We’re gonna have to work together,” Weber said.

The next “Unstuck” workshop will be held on Nov. 6 in Charleston.