OAK VIEW : Families Offer Hope to Addicted Parents

Six-year-old Alfred learned to ride a skateboard in the first week he spent with Greg and Valerie Hoffman, foster parents for Hope for Kids Inc.

“He’s really good at it,” Hoffman said, beaming.

Alfred and his sisters, Alondra, 12, and Cassondra, 7, are staying with the Hoffmans for four weeks while their mother, Carol, is treated at Latina House in Oxnard, a center for women addicted to alcohol and drugs.

The three children have found a haven with the Hoffmans and their two children, Tyler, 11, and Genevieve, 8.

Without a foster family such as the Hoffmans, Carol said, she could not have re-entered a treatment center.

“Through the program I have peace of mind because I know my kids are in a safe place,” the 31-year-old Oxnard mother said.

The only temporary foster program in Ventura or Santa Barbara counties, Hope for Kids allows parents to voluntarily place children with other families while the parent receives treatment for drug or alcohol abuse.

‘We’re sort of last resort when all other resources have failed, when there is no grandma, aunts or uncles to care for the children,” said Diana Vogelbaum, a teacher at Thacher School in Ojai, who runs the program from her Oak View home.

Mary Beth Martin, director of the Miracle House Inc. treatment centers in Ventura and Oxnard, helped start Hope for Kids three years ago.

Without such a program, she said, her clients would have to be declared unfit parents before their children would qualify for foster care through county Child Protective Services.

“If the mother should relapse, she would stand the chance of losing permanent custody of the child,” Martin said. “When informed of that option, moms simply refuse to go into treatment.”

Dennis Trenten, who licenses foster homes for the county, said the agency can put children into care only when they are in immediate danger. “This program provides a mechanism for those parents who recognize they need to change but are not being legally forced to.”

The nonprofit program, which has helped 30 children and 20 parents, received a boost this year when the County Board of Supervisors doubled its budget allocation to $54,000. Seven foster families are licensed in Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo, Moorpark, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks, Trenten said.

Valerie Hoffman said she and her husband became foster parents to continue caring for two children whose mother, a nurse, entered a treatment program. “It’s improved our marriage and been a blessing for our family,” she said.

“The things our kids have taken for granted are such a treat to the others,” Greg Hoffman, a mechanical designer for the U.S. Navy, said. “It’s nice to feel I’m making a difference.”