Family & Children’s Aid Needs Foster Parents

Family & Children’s Aid Needs Foster Parents

National Adoption Day this year is Nov. 19 and local child advocacy organizations hope to raise awareness to help find foster parents for children in need. Family & Children’s Aid in Danbury is a non-profit organization offering therapeutic support programs for children and families in crisis. The agency’s main campus, located on West Street in Danbury, has served as a safe haven for abused and neglected children who are taken from their parents due to drug, alcohol, sexual, physical abuse or other issues. Family & Children’s Aid also services Waterbury, Torrington, New Milford, Shelton, Bridgeport and New Britain.

Family & Children’s Aid Foster Care Recruiter, Angela Brunetti, said that at any given time there are over 2,000 children in Connecticut awaiting a foster home. In the meantime, the children are housed in alternative placements such as safe homes and group homes until a family is identified for them. While in alternative placements, children receive treatment and therapy to help them adjust to life outside of an abusive and/or neglectful home.

Families who decide to take in a foster child undergo a thorough screening, fingerprinting and background check. They are trained trough PRIDE classes to learn how to parent children with emotional and behavioral issues due to their past trauma before the children are placed into their homes. Supports include a monthly reimbursement/stipend to cover costs of clothing, food and other basic needs as well as a team of professionals available 24/7 for support and any issues they may face with their new foster child.

November is National Adoption Month, a time to raise awareness about the adoption of children and youth in foster care. According to Childwelfare.gov: “This year’s initiative focuses on building capacity of adoption professionals to recruit and retain parents for the 107,000 children and youth waiting for permanent families in the U.S. foster  care system.”

For more information about Family & Children’s Aid, or how you can become a foster family, click here or call 888-YOU-BELONG.

For more information about National Adoption Month, click here.