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(WSIL) -- Caritas Family Solutions believes the need for foster care parents is a national crisis.Ìý

The from the state of Illinois shows nearly 1,200 children are in foster care for the state's 15 most southern counties.Ìý

Of those kids, 728 are being fostered by a relative or family friend that the child knows. While 409 are in traditional foster care, and around 60 are staying in group homes or another placement.Ìý

One person who knows what its like to foster is Herrin resident Krista Teckenbrock. She has three birth children and three adopted children including Mary 17, Faith 11 and Mac 9.Ìý

Teckenbrock and her husband adopted the trio while fostering other children through .

"It wasn't really a decision to adopt one child over another child," she explains. "Just the kiddos in our home weren't able to return home." 

Over 12 years, the couple fostered nine other children who went back home to their biological parents, which is always the goal.

"Some of our families we've been able to stay in contact with because we worked hard to establish those relationships," Teckenbrock says. "Just to watch them grow up and be successful with their families has been an amazing blessing."

Right now, Caritas and other foster programs are in need of more people like the Teckenbrocks, who open their doors to children that they've never met before.

Caritas is the second largest provider of foster care services in the state and the largest in southern Illinois. Currently, the group has 1,200 foster homes and 900 of those are relatives to the child or fictive kin.

Hope Carbonaro, Executive Director of Child Welfare, explains what a fictive kin is.

"Maybe a school teacher that the child knew," she says. "Maybe a neighbor or friend of the family. Really trying if at all possible place the youth where they're familiar." 

Family and fictive kin are only licensed to foster that specific child or children leaving a need for traditional foster homes. Especially when Caritas serves more than 1,7000 foster children on a monthly basis.

While all  children in the group's care have a place to stay, many are waiting for a home.

"Maybe they're in a residential treatment center and they've completed their treatment," Carbonaro says. "Or maybe they were in a psychiatric hospital and have completed their treatment, and it's time for them to step out into a home environment to continue they're healing." 

Without a foster home to go to, it also creates a waiting list for those vital services.

"That's kind of at a crisis point in Illinois where we need those higher level treatment facilities for those who are in need of that care," Carbonaro adds.Ìý

While many might be hesitant to foster because of a child's trauma, Teckenbrock believes it taught her a lot about parenting.

"Everybody even as adults, " she says. "Everything that we do; we do for a reason. Instead of trying to discipline that out of our kids, we need to figure out what that reason is and work to meet those needs."

Caritas guided Teckenbrock on how to handle trauma correctly and can even joke now about wishing she had those skills sooner.

"I often say that I feel like I need to go back and apologize to my birth kids," she laughs. "Oh man I did all of this wrong." 

Teckenbrock now works for Caritas and oversees a mentoring program that pairs new fosters parents with established ones.

"They enjoy someone who has walked that walk to walk beside them, and that was kind of the purpose," she explains. "Even if you have the very best case manager that person might not have actually been a foster parent."

For mentoring program, they try to match families who are in similar situations, so they can best relate and give advice.Ìý

To become a foster parent: 

• You must be 21 or older
• Fill out paper work for a license 
• Complete a home study
• Undergo training 

For more information on fostering through Caritas Family Solutions, .Ìý