ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) – Big Country foster care advocates gathered Tuesday at Beltway Park Church South to rehearse their respective roles ahead of a simulation aimed to give participants the experience of going through the foster care system for one month.

The simulation, set to take place later this February, will host 100 guests then broken into groups and assigned a role in a CPS case such as “parent” or “child.” They will then visit different tables representing places like a courtroom or doctor’s office to accomplish certain tasks.

Rebel Taylor with Big Country CASA, an organizer of the event, says its goal is to offer participants better understanding of issues foster children are exposed to and knowledge of how to navigate through the system to offer them the best care.

“We have attorneys, we have doctors, we have therapists that are all going to be working the stations,” says Taylor. “Whether it’s meeting with a physician or meeting with a case worker, we want to give them an idea of what it’s like to go through the foster care system as one of those people involved in that case.”

Participants will be able to ask professionals working at the simulation stations any questions they have along the way. Volunteers like Erin Mills with Foster 325 plan to help them understand the ins and outs of the system in hopes of closing the gap of fosters in Texas.

“When we first started fostering there was no one else we were the only family in our small town, that was in another state in Illinois. There was nobody else,” said Mills. “It’s super encouraging to know that the city wants to rally around these families and these kids that they’re not getting left behind.”

For more information on Big Country CASA visit their website at this link.