Hovah Underwood Memorial Award

Pictured above, MWV Board Member, Lynn Bennett, and

MWV Executive Director, Dr. Charles Chandler,

present the award to recipient Linda Hoffman.

We would like to take this opportunity to utilize the FrameWorks blog by announcing that Mission West Virginia, Inc. has announced the winner of the Hovah Underwood Memorial Award for Community Service. The 2009 winner is Linda Hoffman, an instructional aide at T.A. Lowerly Elementary School in Shenandoah Junction, WV.

Pictured above, Linda Hoffman accepts the award.

The award is made annually to a deserving citizen who has excelled in helping others, especially children. Emphasis is given to the volunteer aspect, which was very important to its namesake, Hovah Underwood, wife of the late Governor.

Mrs. Hoffman is a caring influence at school, and continually goes the “extra mile” to be of service to children. She is equally involved in the church and civic areas of Jefferson County and nearby Maryland. The Hovah Underwood award was given at the West Virginia Leadership Conference, formerly the Volunteer Conference.

Grant Awarded to Mission WV!

The Robert H. Mollohan Family Charitable Foundation, Inc. has awarded a grant of $2,500 to Mission WV, Inc. through a Community Grant Program.

This grant will be used to support the BIKISI program, which operates under the E-impact program. BIKISI (Build it, Keep it, Share it) is a youth computer education program that takes place in rural communities throughout West Virginia. During a one week training, youth are provided with the tools, parts, and knowledge needed to build their own computer. At the end of the training, the student is able to take the computer home with them. BIKISI is in partnership with the Workforce Investment Board and Regional Education Service Agency (RESA).

Memory Cooper, FrameWorks AmeriCorps Vista, submitted the grant applications. Congratulations Memory! Memory recently joined us from Indianapolis, IN and we are happy to have her as a part of our team. She is working on the first phase of a project that will work to help foster care youth who are at risk of aging out. Youth, aging out of foster care, are often unprepared for transition to adulthood. This project will target those youth and coordinate community wide efforts to assist these young people in transition. The project is a collaborative effort of Mission WV, Children's Home Society, West Virginia's Promise, and the Corporation for National and Community Service. A grant from the Benedum Foundation was received by Mission WV, Inc. to fund the program.

Walk Me Home...to the place I belong.

On May 23rd 2009, the National Foster Parent Association, the WV Recruitment and Retention Collaborative and Mission,WV sponsored a walk called "Walk Me Home...to the place I belong" to raise funds for foster care programming throughout WV. Foster parents, adoptive parents, social workers, friends, family, everyone, joined together to make this event a success and we were able to raise over 15 thousand dollars!

On Saturday July 18th, Melvin Gravely, National Foster Parent Association Board President presented FrameWorks' employee Rachel Probst with a check for the remainder of the funds that were raised online.

Also, Saturday July 18th marked the date for the second meeting of the WV chapter of the NFPA. At the latest meeting, the group developed a mission statement: To Support and Advocate for WV Resource Families.

The group developed strategic directives and went over bylaws and 501(c)3 information. The next meeting will be held on Saturday, September 12 in Morgantown, with exact location still to be determined. An interim board will be elected at the next meeting. For more information on joining the WV chapter of the National Foster Parent Association, please give us a call at 866-CALL-MWV.

Again, thank you to all of those who made Walk Me Home a success. We look forward to next year's walk!

Check us out!!!

In partnership with the WV Department of Health and Human Resources, FrameWorks has developed a billboard that is now on display at three locations in the Charleston area. It is our hope that potential foster/adoptive parents, relative caregivers, potential volunteers, and leaders in the Charleston community will all notice our billboard and either call or visit our website.

If you live in the area, please check out our billboards! You can find one by the Wendy's Parking lot in Kanawha City, another one is at 5414Maccorkle Avenue when heading to the mall and is on the left (the mall where Gabriel Brothers is), and a third one is in St. Albans on Rt. 60 just a little past Value City on the right side of the road. If you see one of the billboards, please let us know. We would like to thank Kanawha Valley Advertising for providing a discounted rate for the billboards. Mission WV is a certified nonprofit organization and we are always looking for free or discounted media, so if you have any connections or suggestions, we are all ears!

Also, in other news, we would like to again thank Carrie Cline for the work she is doing to find permanent families for waiting children. After the segment on Adam was aired we received 11 calls!!! We just love hearing from new potential parents who can provide loving families to children in our state. After all, there are no unwanted children in WV, just unfound families.

Our Condolences

On Thursday July 9th, a couple who was known for adopting special needs children was killed in their home. The couple’s names were Byrd and Melanie Billings and they lived in Pensacola, Florida. Together, the couple had 16 children, 12 of which were adopted – several having Down Syndrome, Autism, and other disabilities.

While three men have been arrested for the murder of these parents, the whole story and what is referred to as a “complex web of relationships” hasn’t been released. According to the media, the family did not know any of the murder suspects and robbery was one of the reasons for this horrible tragedy.

The Billings were a wealthy couple who wanted to share their wealth with children who were in need, but “didn’t imagine their family would grow so large.” The FrameWorks staff would like to send our condolences out to the family and friends of this family. It is sad to see that such a loving family who opened their lives and their hearts to so many children have had such untimely deaths. To read more about the story, please click on the following link: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/31887302/ns/today_people/

Carrie's Kids

FrameWorks has teamed up with Carrie Cline at WSAZ Channel 3 to help find loving, permanent homes for children available for adoption. Every Tuesday on First at Five tune in to WSAZ Channel 3 news to watch "Carrie's Kids," a short segment that features foster children who are legally eligible to be adopted.

On June 9th, Carrie interviewed Adam, a 13 year old boy who enjoys fishing, swimming, riding his bike, and exploring the outdoors. The segment was filmed at Ritter Park in Huntington and we are excited for it to air on Tuesday June 14th on WSAZ's 5 o'clock news. Also, you can see Adam's segment and others online by visiting http://www.wsaz.com/carrieskids

We would like to thank Carrie and WSAZ for this partnership as we are very excited about this new opportunity to recruit families for waiting kids.

What is a Home Study?

A home study is a series of meetings between you and an agency social worker. Once you have applied to adopt, all 50 states require by law that applicants go through a home study, which is a study of a family and their home. This process involves education and preparation as well as a gathering of information about the applicants. As an applicant, you may need to gather documents such as:

Birth Certificates (for yourself and your spouse if applicable)
Your Marriage License
Child Abuse Clearance
Personal References
An autobiographical statement
Some agencies may require a health statement
You are usually asked to verify your income by providing an income statement

You will also go have several interviews with your home finder. It is important to know that the home finder isn't doing a "white glove" inspection, but is learning more about you and your family to verify that the child will be entering a safe and healthy environment.

While it may seem intimidating to face the entire process and gather all of this information, if you are armed with accurate information you can face the home study experience with confidence and the excitement of knowing you will be welcoming a new child into your loving family.

On average, a home study takes between three to six months.

If you have any more questions about the adoption process of home studies, please call FrameWorks at 866-CALL-MWV or email adopt@missionwv.org

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Dine for Kids

On Wednesday August 26th, 2009, if you eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner at the Southridge Bob Evans in Charleston, WV 15% of the proceeds will go to FrameWorks! All you have to do is give the cashier our flyer when you pay your bill! Please download and print the flyer by visiting: http://www.missionwv.org/frameworks/News.html

Please distribute the flyer to all of your friends and family and don't forget to bring it with you when you Dine for Kids!

The flyer can be used when you carryout or dine in. We hope this is a successful event and we look forward to seeing you at Bob Evans on Wednesday, August 26th!
The Southridge Bob Evans is located at 2809 Mountaineer Blvd.

Foster Care Mentoring Act of 2009

As I was browsing foster care related news stories this morning I came across a very inspiring story of a young lady who was raised in foster care and recently earned her doctorate in Pharmacy. In that article I found some very interesting information about the Foster Care Mentoring Act of 2009, which was written to support programs throughout the nation that provide mentoring for children in foster care. With an overwhelming amount of research that shows that caring adults can make a difference in the lives of children (73% of mentored teens achieve higher goals generally), mentor programs offer a cost-effective approach to empowering the lives of foster children and youth.

This bill, if passed, will provide millions of dollars throughout the US to establish or expand mentoring programs. From what I was able to find, states will be eligible to receive up to $600,000, volunteer mentors will be offered student loan forgiveness in federal loans up to $20,000, and there will be a national $4 million public awareness campaign.

Volunteers who participate in the mentoring program will be eligible to receive $2,000 of loan forgiveness for every 200 hours they serve.

If you are interested, you can call your United States Senator and Member of Congress and ask them to support the Foster Care Mentoring Act of 2009. (Call 202-225-3121 for the U.S. House and 202-224-3121 for the U.S. Senate.)

Carrie

Miss West Virginia!

Yesterday, June 30th, we were pleased to have a meeting with Miss West Virginia 2009, Talia Markam. We would like to congratulate Talia on her accomplishment and we are very excited to partner with her on our common goal of finding permanent loving families for foster children in West Virginia.

Talia is an advocate for children and their right to have a safe home and a loving family. She is very educated and passionate about issues surrounding foster care and we couldn't be more excited to work with Talia during the upcoming year. We will keep you updated on this partnership and again, CONGRATULATIONS Talia!

The children pictured in this photo are legally eligible to be adopted. If you have any questions about adoption and/or foster care, please contact us at 866-CALL-MWV or email adopt(at)missionwv(dot)org