Two upcoming webinars for support group leaders

Advocates for Families First is offering a series of free webinars designed for leaders of support groups and organizations that work with kinship, foster, and adoptive families. The fourth session will be Effective Legislative Advocacy Strategies May 29 at 1 p.m. EST (10 a.m. PST; 11 a.m. MST; 12 p.m. CST).

In this session, participants will be introduced to the successful Florida advocacy effort to create a more supportive and normative growing up experience for children and youth in foster care through passage of the “normalcy bill,” which allows for foster and kin caregivers to make prudent parental decisions about activities that their foster and kin children participate in, without having to seek the approval of the child welfare agency. Presenters will share:

Free webinar for support group leaders

As part of an effort to build a strong support and advocacy community for foster, adoptive and kinship families, Advocates for Families First is offering a series of free webinars for leaders of organizations that serve this community.

The first webinar — Starting and Enhancing Support Groups for Adoptive, Foster, and Kinship Families — will be held on February 24 at 2 p.m. EST (11 a.m. PST, 12 p.m. MST, and 1 p.m. CST). The session is designed for those who are new to support group leadership as well as those seeking to infuse their group with new energy or hoping to take the next step in group development.

2014 NFPA Youth Scholarship application now available!

The National Foster Parent Association (NFPA) Youth Scholarship Fund was established to benefit foster, adoptive and birth children of NFPA members. Up to five scholarships are awarded annually based on available funds.

Visit NFPA's Youth Scholarship page for more information. Deadline to apply is March 14, 2014.

Help us identify media that portrays foster parents in a negative light

NFPA, along with North American Council on Adoptable Children and Generations United, is working on a grant to help state and local associations to better meet the needs of foster, adoptive and kinship caregivers. The grant will help us advocate for better laws, policies and practices, and help us improve the image of foster parents and foster care in general.

One of the components of the grant is to obtain an accurate picture of what people are producing, writing and filming in regard to foster care and foster parents. We need to identify television shows and/or movies that have portrayed foster parents/foster families in a negative perspective.

Attention federal employees and active military members!

We need your help!

If you are a federal employee or an active military member, please donate to the National Foster Parent Association through the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC), which is conducted as a payroll deduction program for charitable giving. You may also make a one-time or recurring payment via Give Direct, which charges your credit card once or on a recurring monthly basis as you choose. 

Please help the National Foster Parent Association to continue to support foster, adoptive and kinship families nationally through education and advocacy programs!

Our CFC number is: CFC #11817.  

Thank you for your support!