Pittsburgh-area adoption agency says there's an urgent need for foster families

The people who work inside Twin Pines Family Services in Hopwood spend every day trying to find homes for children in need. But last year, countless children in the Pittsburgh area had nowhere to go. 

The foster care and adoption agency posted a photo to Facebook of a stack of papers. Each page represented a kid who needed a home in 2025 but didn't get one. 

"There is a very large need for foster parents. We are getting referrals all day, every day," said Twin Pines executive director Alyssa Lane. 

Without enough foster homes, children are left waiting, sometimes apart from siblings, sometimes far from everything familiar, just hoping for the day they'll find their forever homes.

Lane says there are tens of thousands of children in need of homes across Pennsylvania and nearly a thousand in the Pittsburgh area.

"They're coming with trauma of all sorts and just kind of having that place to be normal and say, 'I'm OK, I'm safe, I'm loved," Lane said. 

The need isn't slowing down. In fact, Lane said it's growing.

Right now, she is asking the community to step in, whether that means fostering short-term, long-term or simply learning what's involved. She says foster parents don't have to be perfect, they just have to be willing.

"Go for it. I say if you're afraid of getting attached, get attached because you can't properly take care of a child without getting attached," Lane said. 

If you are thinking about becoming a foster parent but still have a lot of questions, Twin Pines is holding an information session on Jan. 30 at the bakery From Scratch in Uniontown.