A Las Vegas man is being praised for stepping up and taking on the responsibility of becoming a father to three siblings in foster care.
In March 2022, People magazine featured six groups of siblings in foster care awaiting a family or someone to step up to adopt them. Three Black boys were among the groups that were featured in the article. Tayveon, 11, Ireon, 10, and Tayvon,9, all loved sports and liked to joke around but had experienced a rough few years.
The three boys lived in five different homes in five years and were recently separated from their two younger sisters after the girls were adopted by a Nevada couple.
Jason Smith saw the article and decided that he and the boys would be a perfect match for one another. Smith started fostering them in April 2022 after he spotted the boys on an adoption website.
“I’m fully invested at this point,” said Smith in a June interview with WDSU’s Digital Team. “I reassured them that they would not be moving again and their case worker that this is it.”
Smith, 45, works as a human resources executive at Caesars Entertainment. The trio and potential foster dad clicked right away after meeting at a McDonald’s after school.
“Let’s make sure they like you,” Smith recalls to People magazine of the case worker saying to him.
The four had a sleepover following the playdate, and Smith said things “took off” from that point.
“From day one he treated them like they were his own,” says Benaleta Simpkins, a social worker in the Clark County Department of Children and Family Services, to People.
She added, “It was never about Jason. He was exactly what the kids needed.”
The trio had moved into Smith’s home later that month. Then, Smith officially became their legal guardian nine months later. Smith told WDSU he felt compelled to adopt the boys to honor his deceased father and felt like he was passing along his father’s legacy.
The adoption was completed…
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