Jan Swink: Help Treasure Coast foster children find homes, services during ...
It is only fitting that Children's Home Society of Florida celebrates its 109th anniversary in November, National Adoption Month.
National Adoption Month is one of those annual observances that provide us with the opportunity to talk about happy outcomes for foster children. During this Thanksgiving season, we are grateful for the families that have opened their hearts and homes to adoptive children and transformed their lives with love.
On Nov. 19, we hosted the 12th Annual National Adoption Day Celebration at Langford Park in Jensen Beach. Almost 250 members of the community and adoptive families helped us recognize the critical need for 123,000 children nationwide longing for permanent, loving families.
Every day children enter the foster care system through no fault of their own. As victims of abuse, neglect or abandonment, many become available for adoption. Many will wait at least five years and move at least three times before being adopted. Siblings often are separated. One in five children will never be adopted, forced to leave foster care at age 18, without a family to call their own. During this very special time of year, it is often difficult to even begin to imagine.
Every child deserves a family.
One of the daunting responsibilities that Children's Home Society of Florida faces is to help these brave, resilient children find stable and loving families.
Remarkably, all of the adoptions finalized this past fiscal year by the Treasure Coast Division's Adoption Services Team were for children in foster care. For the fourth consecutive year, adoption goals were exceeded, by 41 percent in fiscal 2011. We expect to reach more than 60 percent of our annual goal by the end of this month with 23 adoptions in November alone.
We cannot accomplish all this alone. We collaborate with several local agencies helping secure brighter futures for our children. Two shining stars in this effort include Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers and Children's Services Council of St. Lucie County, who cofounded and championed the Heart Gallery of Okeechobee & the Treasure Coast in 2005.
Coast Opportunity Funds - News
National Adoption Month is one of those annual observances that provide us with the opportunity to talk about happy outcomes for foster children. During this Thanksgiving season, we are grateful for the families that have opened their hearts and homes
Holderness Coast Fishery Local Action Group (Flag) will administer the funds. Arthur Hodgson, Chair of the Flag Board, said: "The allocation of this European funding to the Holderness coast represents a major opportunity for both the fishing industry
so today was really an opportunity to talk about what those may be.” Nova Scotia Health Minister Maureen MacDonald noted everyone is grappling with how to fund the growing health care system. “There is a great deal of common ground from coast to
Mr Ritte explained that the fund was established for the purpose of, among other things, helping people fight poverty. He said the second phase of the disbursement would cover Ruvuma, Shinyanga, Coast, Dodoma and Tanga regions.
Recently, ODOT approached NCLC with the idea of removing the berm as a mitigation project for highway construction elsewhere, and it was seen as an opportunity to do what it has been trying to do for years with limited funds. Not only will the flooding
