Don't Forget!

November 16, 1-5 pm
Transition to Adult Living by Les Harris
Vernal DCFS Office

Foster and adoptive parents are essential to helping youth in their care achieve success. This training will provide caregivers with strategies to assist youth making a transition into adulthood.
FFY is required for families caring for youth 14 and up.

December 1 & 15 1-5pm
Vernal DCFS Office
FFY

Resources Available for Children in Care

Christmas 2010 Wish Lists for Children in Care

In an effort to support you in meeting the individual needs of your children in care, the Utah Foster Care Foundation will be working with various businesses, groups, and community members to help you provide Christmas gifts for you children in foster care.  This year we will again seek to fulfill individual requests specific to each child.  Make a list of clothing, toy or gift items your child in care would enjoy or need. Please keep in mind that depending on donations, there is generally a $50 limit per child and many donated items will be coming from Wal-Mart store in Vernal.  Due to tight economic times, donations may be less than in years past. Be sure to list any color and size requests.  Some suggestions include: CD's, gift cards, MP3 players, lego's, make-up, cologne, games, movies, clothing, boots and shoes, toys,pj's, winter clothing, outdoor recreation equipment, sporting goods, jewelry, room decor, craft items, etc... Please call Faith Spencer if you have any questions.
Lists must be returned no later than November 15, 2010. No requests will be accepted after that time, unless you receive a placement after that date. Only children in care and children adopted from care in 2010 are eligible.

KSL's Quarters for Christmas

KSL's Quarters for Christmas has donated $20,000 to help children in foster care with any needed clothing or foot wear purchases.  This is in addition to the wish list items.

Resource parents may access up to $200 for children 11 and older and $100 for children 10 and under for any clothing, outerwear, or footwear purchases.  Only clothing, underclothing, outerwear, and footwear purchases qualify, and itemized receipts must be sent to Faith for reimbursement with the child's name and age.  Funding is available on a first come, first served basis. Once it's gone, it's gone.

Make sure you contact Faith Spencer for approval to be sure funding is still available before purchases are made.  If you're not able to purchase needed items and wait for reimbursement, call Faith. She will be in Vernal Tuesday night Nov. 2 and she can charge your purchases.  If this isn't possible, call her and set up another time.

We would request anyone using these funds to please send a thank you note/letter explaining how the funds were needed and used. Happy Shopping!

Multi-Disciplinary Panel

Just a friendly reminder that there is training tonight at the Job Service Building in Vernal.  Cafe Rio is catering and it is going to be really good! 5:30pm -9:30pm or so.  Hope to see you all there! :O)

September 14th Training

Hello all hope you school year has started off to a GREAT start!  Just reminder to let Shanna, me, know if you would like to attend the Training on the 14th that Cafe Rio will be Catering by This Friday!

 Have a wonderful day and hope to see you there!

Cool Down This Summer!

This year Utah Foster Care Foundation is hosting a statewide appreciation event!

It will be held at Raging Waters in Salt Lake City: 1200 West 1700 South. On Monday, August 2nd.

Camp for Kids

Kathy Searle from the Adoption Exchange sent this info to UFAFA and I'm passing it on to you as well!

This is a great opportunity for foster and adoptive families.  The best part is it's only $20 for the whole week. Please pass this on to whom ever you think could benefit.
Royal Family Kids Camp is a week long specialized camp for abused and neglected children.  Most of the children are, or have been in foster care.  Some have been adopted, some live with relatives.  All have had a rough start in life.
Because of their circumstances RFKC has trained staff to deal with these children's needs in order to provide each child with a week of fun in a safe environment.  Each counselor has no more than two children under their direct care.  All staff members are trained to keep line of sight with the children and another adult at all times.  The Activities include crafts, fishing, swimming, horseback riding, singing, and stories.  On-site staff includes a camp nurse, a  therapist, and a camp social worker.
This year, camp will be held August 9-13.  Cost for the week is $20.
Space is limited. for more information, you may contact Christine McAtee at 801-808-9069, or Shelley Horel at 801-523-9298.

Aspen Grove Family Camp

Don't miss the Foster Family Camp this year!  This event is open to all state licensed foster families that have a current foster care placement and families that have adopted children from foster care within the past 12 months October 2009 - September 2010.
The Camp is September 17-19, 2010 and includes 2 nights of lodging, three days, five meals, and all activities available at Aspen Grove Family Camp & Conference Center.  The cost is $10 per person - babies too. Which is a good deal the normal cost to attend is $1200 per family!
Registration is on a first come, first serve basis.  Registartion fee and form must be sent & postmarked no later than July 9, 2010 (preference will be gien to families who have not attended in the past).  Registration will not be accepted without full payment.  Checks will not be cashed until July 20, 2010.
For more information on Aspen Grove, visit their website at : https://alumni.byu.edu/AspenGrove

Healing a Broken Heart!

I just wanted to mostly get this off my chest in hopes of getting some great advice on how other Foster Families cope with sending their foster placements home.

We just recently sent back our foster child that we have had for almost one year.  We as a foster family are expected to love and care for these kids and then be excepted to just let them go.  I will admit I'm doing much better then I have in the past.  I took this last one knowing that she would probably go back to mom and that I was just a temporary placement.  But how do you not bond with such special kids and just let them go back.  I must say that mom did say that she would let us still have contact with her and she even said that we could still take her every Sunday.  We'll see how that goes!  If any of you have any advice on how to make the transition easier on the Foster Families as well.  Please share!

Families

Tom Wilson & son, True Insight Marketing and FosterCareMonth.org for this adorable Ziggy cartoon in celebration of National Foster Care Month!

Thank you Foster Parents for all that you do!

Welcome

I started this blog in hopes to help all Foster Parents in the Uintah Basin area. Please feel free to leave comments at any time. I especially enjoy feed back. I am one of the two facilitators in the Basin and want to serve you better. Please feel free to let me know what you think...What I can do to help, what trainings you would be interested in, activities or anything else. Thanks for all your hard work Foster Parents. We couldn't do it without you!