Local Woman Awarded Foster Care Recognition

When Brandi Ditch relocated to the area 10 years ago she knew she wanted to help change lives. What she didn’t know was how much her experience would change her own in the process.

Ditch, 32, now a Peabody resident, was named Foster Parent of the Year for 2010 by the Salem branch of the state Department of Children and Family Services this month, as well as a Foster Parent All Star by the Boston branch of the same organization. Two unexpected honors for someone who says she just wants to help make a difference.

Her story can be traced back to the early part of the 2000s when a then 22-year-old college graduate moved north from her native Kansas to take an entry-level job in the mental health field. Her experience eventually took her to a summer camp in New Hampshire where she worked as a councilor for six adopted teenage girls. It was at that point, she said, that she knew she had to become a foster mother.

“I was getting my master’s in social work at the time and I was interning at this summer program for girls who were adopted or in foster care,” Ditch said. “I knew eventually I wanted to look into fostering a child, but seeing that experience and what they had to go through in their lives, it really inspired me to look into it sooner.”

Ditch did look into it and what she found was a heartbreaking story — a young girl, suffering from autism and recently orphaned under tragic, violent circumstances. She knew that some of the challenges would be difficult to overcome, especially as a single woman, with a job and living by herself, but Ditch took the child in anyway, determined to make a better life for the girl before it was too late.

“She came to me when she was three and she was really having a hard time,” Ditch said. “She was really a handful, but the experience was amazing and I just completely fell in love with her so it made a lot of the struggles easier.”

As is the case in most foster care situations, the child’s stay with Ditch was only temporary and a year-and-a-half after she first took her in, Ditch had to say goodbye to arguably the closest person in her life.

“I knew from the start that she would only be a temporary stay, but in that year-and-a-half there was a lot of progress toward getting her adopted into a good home,” she said. “There were a lot of appointments and a lot of therapy; thankfully my work schedule was flexible. Over that time, both of us grew a lot and learned a lot and we definitely made a lot of progress.”

Before her foster child moved to her new home, Ditch created a scrapbook of photos and memories of the two so neither one of them would forget the experience. Her case workers at DCF say this is exactly what foster parents should do and, in a lot of cases, goes above and beyond.

Due to the special bond, the child’s new family has arranged for the two to visit on occasion and remain in touch, something that is not always common once foster children are adopted.

“She was adopted around Christmas, which was really difficult, but I knew she was going to the best possible home — the family is just amazing — so that made it easier,” Ditch said. “The family recognized that little girl and I were really attached and we kind of both needed (to see each other).”

Ditch’s work schedule has made it more difficult for her to take in foster children so, for now, she is dealing with very short-term cases. She says her goal is to become a foster parent again in the future and eventually end up adopting children of her own.

She urges others with the time and resources to adopt or foster children to get in contact with the DCF and try to help out.

“There are so many kids that end up in programs that aren’t good for them because they can’t find foster homes for them. A lot of the programs are great, but not every kid fits into them and it is unfortunate that there aren’t enough foster homes for them,” Ditch said.

“It is the same thing with adoption. Everyone wants to adopt a baby and most of the time you see these celebrities adopting from third-world countries. That is great, but there are a lot of kids right here who need homes, too, and not all of them are infants. There are plenty of kids who are ten, eleven, twelve who need homes too,” she said.