Westchester County leaders are raising awareness about the dire need for more foster families.        

About 500 children in the county are currently in the foster system, but there are only enough foster homes for a little more than half of those kids.

The leaders say they will try to recruit more foster parents by hosting a film screening at Warner Library in Tarrytown on May 19.

The group that needs the most help now are foster teens.

At the age of 15, Aryana Cooper, of White Plains, entered the foster care system. Due to a lack of foster families, she ended up in a youth residence that holds up to eight foster kids and teens at a time.

Cooper will phase out of the system when she becomes 21, and she’s asking families to open their heart and their homes.

"To just do it, because there is somebody out there that needs you,” she says.