Walk Me Home ... To The Place I Belong

by Corrie Lynne Player

Foster parents today are part of a great support system that keeps families together -- to love and nurture children while their biological parents have a chance to learn or be rehabilitated. If rehabilitation isn’t possible, foster parents either support the search for kinship care or adopt the children they love unconditionally.

Experts agree that if enough effective foster homes are found now, future needs for prisons and police will be reduced. More victimized children will be salvaged and turned to thriving, happy lives.

As a long-term foster/adopt parent and vice president of the National Foster Parent Association (NFPA)’s Region 8, I want everybody to know that fostering is a uniquely satisfying job, as are all jobs associated in any way with foster families.

I also want to invite you, my family, friends and colleagues to help raise awareness about the needs of foster children and the homes that help them not just survive awful situations but thrive.

Have you registered for the 2014 virtual walk yet?

http://www.firstgiving.com/walkmehome/Nfpa2014

Thank you, foster parents!

By Irene Clements

Please join the National Foster Parent Association in celebrating National Foster Care Month by honoring the dedicated foster families across the country and celebrating the amazing children/youth who, through no fault of their own, are experiencing foster care services.

Children and youth who are placed into foster care are there due to significant abuse and neglect and cannot be safe in their own homes. Foster families step up to provide the love and healing these resilient children/youth need and deserve. Foster families and caseworkers, along with educators, therapists, CASAs, judges and others, work as a team to help families reunite when possible and when not possible, they help each child find permanency as soon as the child is ready. Every child deserves a forever family to rely on as they grow and mature.

Congratulations and thank you to foster parents who, according to one former foster youth, Rhonda Sciortino, provide "big-hearted, radical hospitality to each child they welcome into their family." Vera Fahlberg, a well-known child development expert and advocate stated: “Every child deserves an irrational advocate.”

Will you step up and consider becoming a member of this very honorable group of people -- foster parents? Look around in your home town or community and join in the celebrations. Perhaps next year, the celebration will be for you, too.

Irene is the president of the National Foster Parent Association.

Join us May 24 for the virtual walk!

http://www.firstgiving.com/walkmehome/Nfpa2014

Sign up by May 1 to get T-shirt for walk!

http://www.firstgiving.com/walkmehome/Nfpa2014

Join us May 24 for Walk Me Home virtual walk

http://www.firstgiving.com/walkmehome/Nfpa2014

NFPA's blue bracelets are back!

State affiliates, we're offering you 50 FREE blue bracelets for National Foster Care Month! These bracelets were a huge hit for 2013 so we're bringing them back. Just email Rachel Mertz at rmertz@nfpaonline.org to take advantage of this offer. If you would like more than 50, you must pay for additional bracelets in advance at the member rate of $37.50 per 50 bracelets ordered.

Show your support for National Foster Care Month

Blue Ribbon Showcase

The National Foster Parent Association (NFPA) is a proud supporter of National Foster Care Month. And you should be too! 

Start now to develop creative ideas to promote National Foster Care Month this May. You can tie blue ribbons around a tree, on your mailbox, in a door wreath or any other place it will be noticed.

Take a photo of your showcase and send it in. NFPA will display your works of art on this blog, Facebook and Twitter feeds and you could enter the showcase to win $100! 

NFPA offers advance orders of blue bracelets

State affiliates, we're offering you 50 FREE blue bracelets for National Foster Care Month! Just email Sarah Schafer at sschafer@nfpaonline.org by March 20 to take advantage of this offer. If you'd like more than 50, you must pay for additional bracelets in advance at the member rate of $37.50 per 50 bracelets ordered.

Local affiliates and agency members, you can order the bracelets at our member rate of $37.50 per 50 bracelets ordered. If you are a state or local foster parent association or agency and would like to order bracelets, the non-member rate is $50 per 50 bracelets ordered.

All orders must be sent by March 20 to Sarah at sschafer@nfpaonline.org and include your name, address to which bracelets are to be sent, and a credit card number with expiration date. Bracelets will feature "Foster parents make a difference" and "NFPA."

As advocates for caregivers, it's never too early to start planning for National Foster Care Month so don't miss this great opportunity. Get your orders in by March 20!

Wow, What a Month!

The National Voice of Foster Parents Wow, What a Month! National Foster Care Month The National Foster Parent Association sends a heartfelt thanks to all who recognized the month of May as National Foster Care Month. We hope that through your efforts, foster care awareness was raised tenfold. We've listed some events that took place around the country for May.

Congratulations to our conference award winners!

The National Foster Parent Association would like to take a moment during National Foster Care Month to proudly announce the winners for our 42nd annual conference awards!

* Foster Family of the Year Award
(recognizing an outstanding and deserving foster family)
John and Diana Alejos, Nacogdoches, Texas



* State Foster Parent Association of the Year Award
(recognizing an outstanding and deserving state foster parent association)
Foster and Adoptive Family Services, New Jersey

* Local Foster Parent Association of the Year Award
(recognizing an outstanding and deserving local foster parent association)
Foster and Adoptive Family Services Volunteer Committee, Middlesex County, New Jersey


* General Service and Recognition Award
(recognizing a recipient who has performed a specific community service or activity)
Vanessa Tyus, Jacksonville, Illinois 



* Social Worker of the Year Award
(recognizing an outstanding direct service worker in a public or private child-placing agency)
Gia Wesley, Kent, Washington


* State Membership Award
(recognizing a state president with the greatest increase in NFPA membership)
Gladys Boyd, Illinois Foster & Adoptive Parent Association

* Gordon Evans Merit Award for Service to NFPA
(recognizing noteworthy service to NFPA)
Carolyn Walker, Jacksonville, Texas



* NFPA Regional Vice President Award
(recognizing a regional vice president with the greatest increase in NFPA membership)
Randy Ruth, Region 5

The winners will be honored for this achievement Saturday, June 16 at the Oak Brook Hills Marriott Resort. Please join us in congratulating this wonderful group that will represent NFPA during 2012.

May is National Foster Care Month -- Be Proud of What You Do!

Irene Clements
NFPA President

Dear NFPA Members and Friends,

As you know, May is National Foster Care Month. It is a time to recognize the exceptional dedication of foster parents and their families and those who work in the foster care system. The National Foster Parent Association is proud to be one of several like-minded national organizations that have partnered in planning for this recognition and the provision of materials that can be used to assist with specific activities and events during National Foster Care Month.

Resources are available from the National Foster Care Month website. If you haven’t been invited to an event in your local area or would like to do something, please go to the website for a wealth of suggestions for activities, sample proclamations and news releases and a calendar of events from around the country. You will also find a fact sheet specific to your state that may be helpful as you educate others about foster care and why it is important for every community to recognize their foster families.

Each state and local community observes May as National Foster Care Month in a variety of ways. Each state has a person who is designated as the state foster care manager and they should be helpful in identifying events and activities in your state.

NFPA has collaborated with US Airways and CNN to have recruitment spots and a two-minute interview utilized on an ongoing basis on airport monitors and on US Airways radio during the months of May through August 2012. We hope this four-month exposure in more than 40 main airports in the United States and on US Airways planes will plant many seeds that will grow into people stepping up to be foster and/or adoptive parents.

I hope to see many more Walk Me Home events planned for next year as foster parents and their support associations learn the importance of spreading the word about the need for more foster homes while raising funds for more retention supports for foster families in their local communities.

The bottom line is that foster parenting is the most difficult but most rewarding thing a person can do with their life. Changing the life of a child to help ensure a bright and happy future is priceless and foster parents do that each and every day. Hold your heads high and be proud of the volunteer work you do 24/7. Understand that the National Foster Parent Association acknowledges and appreciates your hard work and, if we could, would give every one of you a huge hug and a warm pat on the back.

As always, you are my heroes,
Irene Clements, President