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February 2010
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Vol 1, Issue
3
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Volunteers,
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It has been a great month in Family
Finding. We have started to get some really good
volunteer's who are very involved with the program. I
really appreciate each and everyone of you who have put
your time and energy into helping these children find
permanent connections in their lives, that they might
not have had without family finding services.
In
this newsletter I have included a few articles with
information about family finding. I have put together a
quick 6 question survey that I would appreciate if you
took the time to complete. I am always interested in
your thoughts and ideas to help make this a better
program.
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| 2010 Volunteer Survey
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Please take a few minutes to click
on this link and complete a quick survey on the family
finding program.
I appreciate all comments and
suggestions you might have at anytime. This program is
successful because of volunteers like yourself, Your
ideas and suggestions can really help make this a
stronger program.
<a
href="http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TS8QP83">Click
here to take survey</a>
Thank you in
advance for taking a few minutes out of your day to
complete this
survey.
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A Determined Quest to Bring Adoptive Ties to Foster
Teenagers |
This is a great article from the New York times that
talks about family finding. Also, a great success story,
the pull of blood ties affected Robert Jackson, a
53-year-old meat packer across the Mississippi River in
Fairview, Ill. He had not known that his troubled
younger brother had fathered two children in St. Louis
who soon ended up in foster care, with the parents'
rights terminated by a court. By chance, about two years
ago he saw an advertisement in a local newspaper for
potential adoptive parents that featured a picture of
Charles, now 13, and Charlotte, now 12.
Mr. Jackson did a double take: the boy bore an
uncanny resemblance to his brother, the girl resembled a
sister, and Charles and Charlotte were family names.
After confirming his suspicion, Mr. Jackson recalled, "I
thought, 'We've got to bring them back into the
family.' " .. continued in the article, just copy
and paste the link to your
browser.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/us/31adopt.html?pagewanted=1
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Calling
101-
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- Make sure to let the person you
are calling know that you are NOT with DHS and you are
simply a volunteer with AFFEC trying to build
connections for the child.
- Be patient and
listen. A lot of times the person on the other end will
vent their frustration they have with DHS.
- It
always helps to let the person know you are trying to
build a family tree for the child and ask them if they
have any brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles that they have
information for. Gathering as much information as you
can will really help connect the child with relatives
that may not even know the child is in care.
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Remember we are not giving out information about the
child, we are trying to gather information and contacts
from the
relatives.
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The next Brainstorming session will be on Tuesday
2/9/10 from 5:30-7pm. Please let me know if you plan on
attending. Any suggestions for topics to cover are
always welcomed. Also the next Family Finding training
will be on Saturday, February 27, 2010 here at AFFEC
from 9am- 12pm. We are always looking for volunteers. We
currently need Spanish speaking volunteers who are able
to make calls. Spread the word to your family and
friends!!
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Becca
Larsen
541-343-2856
becca@afamilyforeverychild.org
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