Cassady Bush – Resource Family

May is National Foster Care Month!

May is National Foster Care Month!

With May quickly approaching, we wanted to highlight National Foster Care Month by sharing with you all the need we have for foster parents in our community!

Did you know that there are 368,530 children in foster care nationally? There are 5039 children in foster care in the state of Virginia and 166 children in foster care in our locality.

Did you know that the most common goal for children in foster care is reunification with their families?

Help us by joining the supporting work of helping families. You can help be the change and help keep children connected with their families and their communities by becoming a foster parent today! We need more foster parents in our community so that children can continue to reside locally and maintain their natural connections. We want to see more children who enter foster care remain in their communities and placed in families. If you are interested in becoming a foster parent, please contact Cassie Bush at cassady.bush@dss.virginia.gov or (540) 245-5836.

You can also support the children that are in foster care by supporting Foster Love Ministries or by making a monetary donation to the Foster Children’s Fund. Make checks payable to Shenandoah Valley Social Services, memo line Foster Children Fund, and mail to Shenandoah Valley Social Services, Foster Children Fund, P.O. Box 7, Verona, VA 24482. Contact Stephanie Huffman at 540-245-5833 or Stephanie.Huffman@dss.virginia.gov for more information

May is National Foster Care Month!

May is National Foster Care Month! With many children and youth facing increased isolation over the past year, it is more important than ever for communities to work together to establish meaningful connections for children and youth in care. Learn more. #NFCM2021 #FosterCareMonth https://www.childwelfare.gov/fostercaremonth

There are over 423,000 children and youth in foster care. Over half have a case plan goal of reunification with their parents or primary caregiver.

Juvenile and family court systems can influence whether children are reunified with their families or reenter care.

Meaningful and appropriate involvement of youth in their own court hearings and case planning greatly benefits all participants and leads to more favorable outcomes for families.

Competent legal representation for parents is associated with the achievement of timely reunification.

A strong support system of professionals and family can help young people address the challenges they face during their transition to adulthood. Virtual engagement tools can be used to establish and maintain that support system by enhancing connectedness for all involved.

In addition to supporting brain development, encouraging young people to be active participants in planning their own lives supports the development of leadership skills, improves self-esteem, and helps form critical social connections.

September is…Kinship Month

What is Kinship Care?

Kinship care is a term defined in the Code of Virginia as “the full time care, nurturing and protection of children by relatives.”

Informal Kinship Care

Informal Kinship Care refers to an arrangement made by parents or other family members without any involvement from the court or child welfare system.

Formal Kinship Care

Formal Kinship Care is when legal custody is granted by a formal order of Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court Judge to the kinship care provider or the local Department of Social Services. If the Department has legal custody of the child, the child is in Foster Care.

When the child is removed and placed into Foster Care, the agency may place the child with a relative or non-relative approved foster family. Once a child enters Foster Care, they can only be in an approved foster care placement. Relatives wanting to become a Foster Care placement option for a child in care should contact the Department of Social Services to begin the approval process.

In addition to working a Return Home or “Reunification” goal with the birth parents, Virginia law requires agencies to consider relatives as a short term or permanent placement option.

Why is Kinship Care so Important?

When children are placed in Kinship Care, they experience greater continuity of care and family preservation. Children living with kin have a greater sense of permanency, nurturing, safety and well-being. Kinship care also provides an opportunity to continue family connections, culture, traditions, values and goals.

Get to Know… Foster Love Ministries

Foster Love Ministries provides ministry and support to the local foster care community. We envision a community where foster families and children experience God’s Love through relational support, education, and tangible needs.

Foster Love Ministries wants to spread our message of hope and compassion. We believe that a single action can make a difference in the community, and that collective action can greatly impact the world. Through advocacy and outreach activities, our team works tirelessly each day to contribute their part to the greater good.

Visit this link to learn more about them:

https://www.facebook.com/Fosterloveministries/

JOURNEY BAGS

Did you know.. sometimes when a child enters foster care a trash bag is used to hold their personal belongings? A TRASH BAG! This is unacceptable. For very little cost, you can show a child they are loved and not forgotten. Perhaps you feel called to help, but feel that taking on a foster child is too difficult at this time. This is an easy way to brighten a child’s outlook.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKTRMULHEQA&feature=youtu.be

Child Care Microsite Now Available

VDSS’ Divisions of Child Care and Early Childhood Development, Licensing – Children’s Programs and Public Affairs have been working collaboratively over the past few months to design and develop the department’s first ever child care microsite-www.childcareva.com/. The site will serve as an online “hub” for child care tools, resources and information. Designed specifically for parents, providers and other interested parties, this microsite is a wealth of knowledge in a variety of areas including licensing, legislation, child care options and guidance, search tools and much more. The microsite’s functionality is user-friendly to ensure intuitive navigation and a more engaging experience. Check out the new microsite today!

Little Known Facts About Fostering

Little Known Facts About Foster Parenting

Single individuals as well as married couples can become foster parents
Over 80% of Virginia’s foster parents adopt a child who they fostered
There are national organizations that provide training, support and advocacy for foster parents
Foster parents have a right to attend court hearings on their foster child and can discuss their concerns with the judge
Foster parents also are expected to help develop the service plan for the child with the social worker

We Never Outgrow Need for Family

A message from the Commissioner of Virginia Department of Social Services:

Right now in Virginia, nearly a third of the 869 foster care youth awaiting adoption are teenagers. This is why I am so excited about this year’s National Adoption Month theme: “We Never Outgrow the Need for Family”. This year, as the Virginia Social Services System continues the hard work of identifying permanent, loving families for all of Virginia’s waiting children, we will work especially hard to emphasize the need for permanent families for older youth in foster care.

Throughout the month of November, our website and social media sites will feature adoption information to assist families and adoption professionals on a weekly basis. On November 21, in honor of National Adoption Month, many local departments are hosting adoption celebrations throughout the Commonwealth. These and other events are so important because child welfare professionals, as well as prospective and current adoptive families, need relevant information regarding waiting children, the adoption process and post adoption services. Awareness is a critical component of increasing interest, understanding, and ultimately the connections made toward the goal of foster care and adoption.

Last year Governor McAuliffe appointed Debbie J. Johnston as the State Adoption Champion. This past spring, Ms. Johnson established Connecting Hearts, the Debbie J. Johnston Charity, to bring awareness to the number of foster care youth available for adoption, and the need to recruit foster-to-adopt families across Virginia. In just a short year, Connecting Hearts visited all five regions across the state to gather feedback from public and private child welfare professionals regarding barriers to adoption. Today, VDSS’ Division of Family Services, in collaboration with Connecting Hearts, is hosting the first annual Adoption Summit for adoption professionals. The summit will provide workshops on successful recruitment efforts and strategies as well as testimonials from former foster youth. Governor Terry A. McAuliffe and Secretary William A. Hazel, M.D. are attending this special event, to applaud adoption professionals for their work in finalizing adoptions for 620 children last year, and support our efforts to find permanent homes for the 869 children still awaiting adoption in Virginia.

Thank you for your efforts to help raise awareness about the adoption of children and older youth from foster care! I encourage you to visit the National Adoption Month 2015 website https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/adoption/nam/, which has adoption resources for a variety of audiences, including prospective and adoptive parents, birth parents, adopted youth and adults, and child welfare professionals. The website contains resources, stories, and videos on topics including ways to recruit families for older youth, outreach tools, and information for prospective adoptive families.

For more information about National Adoption Month and to learn about local programs and activities in your community, visit the Adoption Event Calendar, http://spark.dss.virginia.gov/divisions/dfs/ap/festivities.cgi, or contact Sondra Draper, Adoption Specialist, at sondra.draper@dss.virginia.gov.

I cannot thank you enough for your diligence in identifying lifelong connections for our waiting youth. This is special work that affords children the love and support they need to achieve successful outcomes as they enter adulthood. Have a great and productive National Adoption Month!

Christmas Project

Each year as autumn begins, we match Christmas gift donors (church, civic organization, business or individual) with children in care. Each child submits a wish list and donors buy and wrap several items from the list (within limits of affordability and availability)

Christmas Project 2015 has begun… letters have been sent to local churches and to interested businesses and individuals… later this month we will ask children to send in their wish lists… as we get wish lists we will match them to donor groups (early to mid November)… that will give donors time to coordinate their activities, buy, wrap and deliver gifts to our Verona office between December 14 and 18.

Wish Lists are arriving… being matched to donors… Thanks to all who are participating!

Send your mailing address to Heather Hudnall at heather.hudnall@dss.virginia.gov for more information.

Get to Know CRAFFT

CRAFFT: The Consortium for Resource, Adoptive and Foster Family Training

CRAFFT promotes the safety, permanency, and well-being of children by helping shape stronger foster, adoptive, respite, and kinship families (collectively referred to as resource families) who serve local Departments of Social Services (LDSS) to meet the needs of children and youth in Virginia’s child welfare system.

CRAFFT’s goals are:

to increase the knowledge and skills of prospective and currently approved resource families through the development and delivery of standardized, competency- based, pre-and in-service training, as required by VDSS; and
to build capacity among (LDSS) to train and assess their own families.

Learn more by visiting http://www.crafftva.org/

There is a CRAFFT Coordinator assigned to each of the five VDSS regions to respond to the pre-service and in-service training needs of LDSS resource families and LDSS staff. Most of the trainings offered by CRAFFT are open to all LDSS resource families and staff in the assigned region. However, occasionally trainings are limited to resource families and LDSS staff from one agency/locality.

Or contact our Coordinator directly:

Piedmont Region CRAFFT Coordinator
Susan Taylor
Radford University
School of Social Work
Box 6958
Radford, VA 24142
staylor22@radford.edu
804-347-4095

Current or prospective resource families interested in participating in a training provided by CRAFFT should contact their LDSS worker to express their interest. LDSS will contact CRAFFT to schedule trainings and to enroll prospective parents.