May 2013 is Foster Care Awareness Month

During this time, we celebrate the tremendous accomplishments of our foster and adoptive parents and the critical role that they play in the lives of our children. 

Currently in our Department, we have over 2,300 licensed families who have opened their hearts and homes to Connecticut's children. We all recognize the need to support these families and retain them as valuable resources. At the same time, we are actively recruiting new homes especially for the hardest groups of children to place which are babies, adolescents, siblings groups and medically complex children.|

Each May, National Foster Care Awareness Month provides an opportunity to shine a light on the urgent needs of our young people and encourages citizens from every walk of life to get involved – either as foster or adoptive parents, or messengers of our cause.

Together, we have partnered with CT hair and nail salons to offer a one –time complimentary service. The blue hair or blue nails will serve as a visual reminder of the over 4,000 children in CT who reside in foster care. Every child deserves a home.

Go BLUE and help us spread our message! Please call or visit one of the participating businesses to make an appointment. Each salon may offer a different BLUE service, check for details while supplies last. 

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TODAYS TOPIC:  My Helping Hand

MYTH:  I can’t have the neighborhood teenager babysit for my foster or adoptive child when I go out socially.
FACT:  Foster parenting and having a social life are not mutually exclusive.  If you know a local teen who you feel is appropriately trained to supervise children, he or she will be allowed to babysit a foster child in the foster family’s home.  Adoptive parents also have the right to select an appropriate babysitter for their child. 
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May 2  - A New Beginning

MYTH: My children are grown and out of the house. I'm too old to be a foster parent.
FACT: There is no age requirement (other than you must be at least 21). Many "empty nesters" find foster parenting to be a rewarding experience.

May 3  - Real Life Stories

MYTH: I don't have any children, and to be a foster parent you need to have parenting experience.
FACTt: Not true! Many of our foster parents have never parented children of their own. They are, however, responsible people who have made a commitment to children and through the training provided by DCF are very capable of caring for foster children. Pre and post - licensing training is available to all of our families.
 

May 6 -  Art from the Heart - press release

Art Blue-themed art shows being held as part of National Foster Care Month activities in Connecticut

Throughout the month of May, the “Color Me Blue” Family Showcase of the Arts – a blue-themed art display by foster parents, children in care and members of community groups – will be on display at Pfizer Inc. in Groton to show support for children who are waiting to find a foster home.
A similar show, at the East Brook Mall in Mansfield, will be open to the public.

The shows are among numerous activities being organized by the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) in collaboration with other foster care and adoption organizations during May, which is National Foster Care Month.

Alana Jones, regional coordinator of Hearts, Hands and Homes Community Collaborative, said the displays will include a variety of mediums, from paintings and photographs to poetry, papier-mâché masks and sculptures. The one thing they have in common? Their color.

“Blue is the official color for foster care,” explained Jones. “So last May, we started Color Me Blue, a series of events designed to raise awareness about foster care and the need for more foster homes,” she said. “We asked people to put blue streaks in their hair, and make blue cupcakes and pancakes. This year, we wanted to expand our activities, and so we added two art exhibits.”
The exhibits allow those with some connection to foster care, along with community members, to express their thoughts and feelings about the subject.

Approximately 4,000 children whose parents are unable to look after them are currently in state care. Many of these children suffer from emotional and psychological issues due to parental abuse or neglect. DCF has stepped up its outreach to kin to see if they are willing to foster children, resulting in many “kinship” placements with grandparents, uncles, aunts, coaches, teachers and mentors. But there is still a significant need for traditional foster parents – especially for difficult-to-place children such as teenagers, sibling groups, medically complex children, and infants.
Jones and her fellow organizers hope that the art shows will help to spread the word.
Over the past two months, she said, “we’ve been collecting artwork from all across the state – from foster and adoptive families, youths at the DCF’s Connecticut Juvenile Training School, Riverview Hospital for Children and Youth, therapeutic foster care agencies and support groups, boys’ and girls’ shelters, afterschool groups and a Girl Scout troop.”

She also held a number of mask-making and art canvas workshops that were open to the public.
As for the art shows’ locales, Jones explained that Community Health Resources (CHR), a Willimantic-based foster care recruiting agency, has a relationship with Pfizer, Inc. “We have several adoptive families from Pfizer, and they have 4,300 onsite staff and contract staff.” Art show organizers reached out to the pharmaceutical company to ask if they could stage the show on the Pfizer campus, and the response was positive. “We saw that as a real opportunity – to reach that many people with our message,” she said.

The mall show, meanwhile, will be visible to the public, and will also run throughout the month of May.

Jones said everyone involved in the Color Me Blue initiative hopes to make it bigger and better each year. “We want everyone to think of blue for foster care the way they think of pink for breast cancer awareness,” she said.

For more information about this and other National Foster Care Month events, contact Alana Jones at (860) 710-1593 or Alana@heartshandandhomes.org; contact Jacqueline Ford at (203) 641-5710 or Jacqueline.Ford@ct.gov; or visit www.ctfosteradopt.com.

May 7 - The Road to Fostering/Adoption

 May 29 - Foster Adoptive Mission

MYTH:  A foster or adoptive child must have his or her own bedroom.
FACT:  Sharing a bedroom is permitted.  DCF will assist foster parents in determining bedroom arrangements during the home study process.  Adoptive parents can determine the most appropriate sleeping arrangements for their children. 

May 30 -

MYTH:  I don't have any children, and to be a foster parent you need to have parenting experience.
FACT:   Not true! Many of our foster parents have never parented children of their own. They are, however, responsible people who have made a commitment to children and through the training provided by DCF are very capable of caring for foster children. Pre and post - licensing training is available to all of our families.