Relatives As Parent's Program

There will be a free Relatives as Parents Workshop on Saturday March 24th, 2012 at Trinity Lutheran Church (1600 Kanawha Blvd. East Charleston, WV). Topics include: Enrolling Children in Care in School presented by Frances Pack of Kanawha County Schools and An Overview of the IEP (Individual Education Plan) presented by Rhonda McCormich of Legal Aid.

Those who should attend include: Kinship Parents, Foster Parents, Social Workers, DHHR Staff, and any interested parties. The day starts at 9 a.m. with coffee and registration. The first workshop begins at 9:30 and the day concludes at 4:00 p.m.

A free lunch will be provided. Please register before the DEADLINE of March 16th, 2012. You can register by calling Mission WV at 866-CALL-MWV or by emailing Laura Lou Harbert at lharbert@missionwv.org

We hope to see you there!

Carry-On Campaign back to school drive

The Carry-On Campaign, launched in October of 2010 to eliminate garbage bags as luggage for youth in foster care, is organizing a back to school drive. Every kid deserves to start the school year with the appropriate tools they need for a quality education. We are reaching out to West Virginians and asking that you please donate a book bag filled with school supplies.

We've put together a flier with suggested items for the book bags. These are just suggested and all items are not required. To view this flier, please click HERE.

Once you have your donation ready for delivery, take it to one of the following drop-sites or call and talk to Carrie - our number is 866-call-MWV. We suggest, if a number is provided, that you call the drop-site first so they can expect you and your donation.

Thanks in advance for making a difference in the lives of youth in foster care. Again, if you have any questions at all, give us a ring.

Join us for an Adoption Day Celebration!

The WV Recruitment and Retention Collaborative invites you to a day of celebration in honor of National Adoption Day. On November 20th starting at 2PM, participants can explore the Clay Center's Avampato Discovery Museum, which houses two floors of hand-on exhibits featuring more than 12,000 square feet of nonstop fun. At 4:30 we will head to the Intermezzo Cafe for refreshments and to hear guest speakers. Ending the celebration at 6 o'clock we will hold a candlelight ceremony outside of the Clay Center. Please feel free to join us at any time during the celebration event. To view the flyer for the event, please click here: Adoption Celebration Flyer

Save the Date! Another FREE workshop!

FREE Workshops on:

"What the Fostering Connections Act Means to You and Families" presented by Joanne M. Brown, JD, MSW, National Resource Center on Legal and Judicial Issues
AND
"An Overview of WV Grandparent Visitation and Minor Guardianship Law" presented by Honorable Mike Kelly, Eleventh Family Circuit Court.

When: Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 - 10 AM to 3PM

Where: YWCA 305 Washington Ave. Clarksburg, WV 26301

Who Should Attend: Kinship families including grandparents raising grandchildren, Foster Parentes, Attorneys, Judges, FRN Directors, DHHR Staff, WVU Extension Services Staff, Private Agency Staff, CASA Staff and Volunteers, Social Workers, and other interested people.
Lunch and child care up to age 12 provided.

Preregistration for workshop and childcare must be made by MAY 14th. To register, call Mission WV toll free at 866.CALL.MWV (866-225-5698) or email Laura Lou Harbert at lharbert(at)missionwv.org

This workshop is a joint effort of Mission WV, the WV Department of Health and Human Resources, the Supreme Court of Appeals of WV, Legal Aid of WV, the American Bar Association, WVU Extension Services and the Bureau of Senior Services.

MWV has billboards!

Mission West Virginia has billboards going up throughout the state! We hope that those who see our board, give us a call! There are two billboards in Clarksburg and one in Fairmont. There are three more and we will give an update soon so you can seek them out.

If you do live in Clarksburg or you are in the area, you can see our billboards on Rt. 50 near Minard's Spaghetti on "dealership row" and on West Pike St. just off of Rt. 50 headed into downtown Clarksburg.

The board in Fairmont is on Locust Ave at Beverly St. near intersection routes 250 and 19.

And out of curiosity, do you pay attention to billboards when you are out and about? If so, what makes one catch your attention. Where do you go to seek out information?

Thanks for reading!

FREE Relatives as Parents Legal Workshop

FREE Workshops on:

"What the Fostering Connections Act Means to You and Families" presented by Joanne M. Brown, JD, MSW, National Resource Center on Legal and Judicial Issues

AND

"An Overview of WV Grandparent Visitation and Minor Guardianship Law" presented by Honorable Mike Kelly, Eleventh Family Court Circuit.

When: Saturday, March 27, 2010 - 10AM to 3PM

Who Should Attend: Kinship families including grandparents raising grandchildren, Foster Parentes, Attorneys, Judges, FRN Directors, DHHR Staff, WVU Extension Services Staff, Private Agency Staff, CASA Staff and Volunteers, Social Workers, and other interested people.

Lunch and child care up to age 12 provided.

Preregistration for workshop and childcare must be made by MARCH 19. To register, call Mission WV toll free at 866.CALL.MWV (866-225-5698) or email Laura Lou Harbert at lharbert(at)missionwv.org

This workshop is a joint effort of Mission WV, the WV Department of Health and Human Resources, the Supreme Court of Appeals of WV, Legal Aid of WV, the American Bar Association, WVU Extension Services and the Bureau of Senior Services.

To view and download the flyer, visit this link: http://www.missionwv.org/frameworks/News.html

Walk Me Home 2010!!!

FrameWorks is excited to announce that we have a date set for the Walk Me Home 2010 event! Please join us on Saturday May 15th at the Appalachian Power Park in Charleston, WV for a foster care celebration and fundraiser.

The website is now open for registration and we hope that you register soon! By clicking here: Walk Me Home 2010, you can visit the Walk Me Home website and either form a team, register as an individual, or make a contribution.

We are really excited to see everyone who attended the walk last year and we hope to see new faces this year. Walk Me Home provides a great opportunity for foster care supporters from all over the state to come together in celebration of those who dedicate their lives to improving the lives of children while also remembering the thousands of West Virginia children in the foster care system.

Last year, the weather was beautiful and we all had SO MUCH FUN! We hope that this year is just as wonderful and we will have prizes for the top 3 fundraisers and a plaque for the top fundraising team.

Funds raised from the event will go towards the Recruitment and Retention Collaborative and to FrameWorks Programming, which works to empower the lives of WV foster children and recruit families for children who are legally eligible for adoption and waiting for a forever family.

If you are interested in volunteering, we would appreciate your help!

We look forward to another great Walk Me Home event and hope to see you there!

12 ways to support foster care all year long

After the blog article I wrote about resolving to make the difference in someone else's life this new year, one of our facebook "fans" asked for suggestions of how they could help to empower the lives of foster children and those who are dedicated to either finding or providing forever families that can provide a home filled with support and love. So, we came up with a list! If you would like to do everything on this list or just one thing on this list, it will provide more support and encouragement than you could ever being to realize. Also, if you would like any help in fulfilling any of the "ways to help" on the list below, just call us and we would be more than glad to help out.

Thanks for reading and we hope to hear from you. Do you have any ideas to add on to this list?

FrameWorks' 12 ways to support foster care:

1. January - Write a note to a foster kid that provides encouragement and advice for the new year.
2. February – Bake heart shaped cookies and donate them to a group home facility.
3. March – send flowers to a social worker who works hard to find families for children. A group of people could chip in on this and a member of the FrameWorks staff could help you with finding a social worker to give to if you don’t already have one.
4. April – put together a “rainy day” care package for a kid living at a group facility.
5. May – Make a team for Walk Me Home! The walk will be May 15th this year!
6. June - Time for another care package that could include sidewalk chalk/beach towel/sun screen.
7. July – Send a note of encouragement to a foster or adoptive family! They would probably really appreciate a small gift certificate for a family activity like a visit to the ice cream store or a night out to the movies.
8. August – School will be starting and a little pencil pouch full of cool pencils, pens and erasers would be a handy gift to give a foster child.
9. September – this is a time of year when a lot of kids get to go school shopping with their families and children living in a group facility don’t get to enjoy that experience. A gift card to a clothing store would come in handy and an adoption recruiter could go for a one on one shopping trip with one of their kids. This way, the kid would get to feel extra special.
10. October – My favorite, Halloween! Send a group home a bunch of candy or Halloween themed baked items. Maybe by now you have been buying for one special foster kid who needs a family and you would like to buy them a mask or something fun to wear on Halloween.
11. November – November is National Adoption month and a tough month for kids who don’t have a family to eat Thanksgiving Dinner with. This month, you can help out by attending a National Adoption Month event and saying a special prayer for foster children who are waiting for a family.
12. December – The holidays are here! You know what you can do!

Computer training for WV foster children

During the week after Christmas, our e-impact tech program at Mission WV was able to team up with FrameWorks on a project that combined the mission of empowering foster youth's lives and teaching technology to the youth throughout our state. Thanks to a grant given by the Mollohan Foundation, Mission West Virginia was able to provide free computer training to a few of the foster youth who live at Stepping Stones, a group facility for foster children. The program called BIKISI, stands for Build it Keep it Share it. Youth who participate in the program are given the tools, parts, and knowledge to build a computer of their very own that they are allowed to keep at the end of the week.

“These young men were not able to visit with family over the holiday” said Susan Fry, Stepping Stones Executive Director, “and the positive engagement, knowledge and priceless opportunity this program afforded them certainly brought a smile to their faces during a time that is very difficult for many of our kids.”

We are so happy that this was such a good experience for everyone involved. We hope to continue seeking funds so that more foster youth can also have the opportunity to get involved in the BIKISI Program.

Happy 2010!

The staff at FrameWorks hopes you have all had a wonderful holiday season and are now getting back into the routine of daily life. At the office this week, we are reviewing the past year and discussing our goals for 2010. 2009 was a great year and several of the children we work with were placed in permanent homes with loving forever families, but the work isn't finished until every foster child in our state has a family.

Leading up to Christmas and the New Year, I kept thinking about the children we work with who would be spending the holiday at a group home or treatment facility. We do all we can to make the holiday extra special for these children and I cannot thank everyone enough who donated gifts.

With each new year, many of us come up with personal resolutions to lose weight, finish a project, quit smoking, etc. I thought it would be nice if FrameWorks and our blog readers came up with resolutions to help others. For example, what can you do this year to make sure another foster teen doesn't spend another Christmas at a group home? Or, what can you do this year to empower the life of a foster child?

Please comment on this post with resolutions of how you plan to help out someone else this year. By making a donation, buying personal items, etc. What are your ideas?!

Thanks for reading!

Carrie

PRIDE Training - The Adoption Process

There are several steps in the process of certification so that one can adopt, and one of the most important steps is called PRIDE. PRIDE stands for Parent Resources for Information, Development, and Education and is a training is designed to prepare you for fostering/adopting and explain the details of becoming a foster/adoptive family.

The training is designed to help you gain the best possible understanding and preparation for parenting and adopted or foster child. The training provides an excellent opportunity to meet with other families and social workers, answer your questions, ease fears, dispel myths and educate yourself on children in the child welfare system. In a two parent household, both parents are required to attend training. The standard training in West Virginia is called PRIDE. Training schedules vary between agencies, however many try to accommodate workday schedules and host trainings on evenings or weekends.

At this point, you might be asking yourself why you have to take this training. You are probably thinking something along the lines of "I've raised 2 kids, I have grandkids, I know what I am doing!" However, we would like you to read the following story from two recently certified foster parents and hopefully this will ease you into being more comfortable with PRIDE training.

"My husband John and I completed the PRIDE training classes last month. We were told we needed 27 hours of training to become foster/adoptive parents. We couldn't imagine what they would teach us since we already raised two boys and have two grandsons. Not that we know it all, but 27 hours?! Well, now we would like to say this: The classes provided us with so much information and necessary skills to prepare us for a child who has experienced losses. We had a wonderful teacher who did a great job sharing her knowledge and experiences. We learned things we didn't know anything about and now realize how important this information will be in caring for foster/adoptive children."

We hope that you too are able to register for a PRIDE training and receive such wonderful instruction. If you are interested in becoming a foster/adoptive parents and would like to know more about PRIDE, please give us a call at 866-CALL-MWV. Or perhaps you have a PRIDE training story you would like to share?

Thanks for reading and for the PRIDE training calendar, follow this link:http://www.wvdhhr.org/oss/adoption/adoption_calendar/diary.asp

Winter 2009 Newsletter

Hot of the press, come and get it! The FrameWorks Winter 2009 Newsletter has been completed! We hope you take a few minutes from your busy day to read our newsletter. Just click on the image above and a PDF file should open. Please let us know what you think and if there is anything you would like to see in future issues of "Open Your Life."

Thanks and Happy Holidays!

A Happy Adoption Story

Please follow this link: http://www.wgal.com/news/21907362/detail.html to watch a video and read an article about a man, 93, who adopts his 64 year old foster son who has been living with him since the age of 14.

Do you have a touching adoption story you would like to share? We would love to post it on our blog or possibly in our newsletter.

Please give us a call at 866-CALL-MWV or send an email to adopt(at)missionwv.org

Have a wonderful evening!

Please give to WV Foster Children this holiday season!

Have you been wondering what you can do to help someone else out this holiday season? If so, we have a great opportunity for you to make a foster child's Christmas extra special this year!

FrameWorks has teamed up with eight Rite Aid stores to receive gift donations for West Virginia Foster Children. With approximately 4,000 children in the WV foster care system, we ask that you open your life to them and give from the heart.

You can currently donate gifts to foster children at one of the eight Rite Aids at the following locations: Hurricane, Teays Valley, St. Albans, Charleston (South Hills), S. Charleston (McCorkle Ave.), Charleston (West Washington Street), Dunbar, and Huntington (5th Ave.). Barrels that have been decorated with art created by foster children are available at each store for the deposit of gifts.

Thanks for giving and if you have any questions or would like to donate directly to FrameWorks, give us a call at 866-CALL-MWV.

Happy Holidays!

2009 National Adoption Month Drawing Contest Winners Announced!

Thank you to everyone who helped a child participate in this contest and thank you to all of the children who participated! Overall, we received 36 entries and choosing winners sure wasn't easy. We are posting the Grand Prize Winner and each 1st place winner in each age category. All winners, 1st through 3rd in each category, are posted on our website: 2009 Drawing Contest Winners.

Each participant who won will receive a prize donated by Sheetz and the grand prize, a digital camera with memory card, was donated anonymously. We would also like to thank our great judge and talented artist, Amanda Jane Miller of S.Charleston, WV. Thank you all so much!

The theme for this year's contest was "My Dreams"

The Grand Prize goes to Philip, age 11. Titled: "A New Beginning"

Age Category 4 - 6. 1st Place: Hayden (age6)

Age Category 7 - 9. 1st Place: Austin (age 7)

Age Category 10 - 13. 1st Place: Emma (age 11)

Age Category 14 - 18. 1st Place: Natasha (age 14)

Adoption Month Press Conference

A National Adoption Month Press Conference was held yesterday at The Supreme Court Chambers in Charleston, West Virginia. The purpose of the conference was to promote awareness of the thousands of children in foster care and encourage West Virginians to consider adoption.

Speakers included, Steven Canterbury (Administrative Director), Chief Justice Brent D. Benjamin, Justice Workman, and concluded with a touching adoption story from the E family about their special choice to adopt two different sets of siblings after first having a biological daughter. Spoken with love and compassion in his voice, the adoptive father's story was very touching and when his 9 year old adoptive daughter spoke, almost everyone in the crowd was in tears. His daughter, spoke of the many homes she had lived in while in foster care and about how happy she is now that she has found love in her new adoptive family with her new mommy and daddy.

Above: The E family with Justice Workman
Chief Justice Benjamin and Justice Workman spoke about their personal experiences with adoption as well as their professional experiences helping children who have been abused and/or neglected. As they mentioned, there are thousands of children in the foster care system and approximately 1,000 of them in WV are legally eligible to be adopted and waiting for a permanent family. Chief Justice Benjamin mentioned how important it is for West Virginians to help our children and realize the small things that are important in the life of a child. A child who is waiting to be adopted doesn't have a family of their own to come home to after school, a family to eat dinner with, or a family to be encouraged by.

Those who spoke, urged everyone listening to open their lives, hearts and homes to West Virginia children. There are so many wonderful kids in our state who are legally eligible for adoption, but sadly, their age or other circumstances keep them from finding a loving family. We at FrameWorks encourage you to please visit our website (click here: Waiting Children) or visit the State's site http://www.adoptawvchild.org/ and learn more about the children in West Virginia who are waiting for a loving family. Also, our number is 866-CALL-MWV and we are waiting to hear from you.

A special thank you to Nikki Tennis and staff of the Administrative Office of the Supreme Court of Appeals of WV for organizing and hosting this wonderful event.

A BIG THANKS to IHOP of Barboursville, WV!

Above: IHOP's friendly Staff

We had a wonderful event last night at the IHOP in Barboursville. We had several people show up in support of the event and met lots of new people. The highlight of the evening was seeing the Bo family with their daughter J. J’s adoption was finalized yesterday morning and we celebrated with cake and balloons!

Above: The B family entering IHOP

20% of proceeds between the hours of 5 to 9 PM will be donated to FrameWorks. The IHOP staff worked really hard for us and were very accommodating. We are most appreciative for everything Barboursville IHOP and their wonderful staff have done to help us empower the lives of West Virginia Foster Children.

Above, FrameWorks adoption worker, Carol Phipps,

talks with adoptive parent and friend of FrameWorks, Rita Boyles.
And below: Kellie Booton and Patti Harold, WVDHHR Social Workers

came out to support FrameWorks!We would like to thank everyone who came out in support of FrameWorks last night!

Mark your calendars! 2009 National Adoption Month Event

Please join us on Saturday November 21st at the Clay Center in Charleston, WV for an Adoption Month Celebration. Starting at 3 p.m. with free admission to the Discovery Museum for Adoption Month Event participants followed by refreshments and a luminary project at 4:45 and ending with an outside candlelight ceremony from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

This event has been organized and sponsored by the WV Recruitment and Retention Collaborative and the WV Department of Health and Human Resources. For more details, please click on the image of the flyer to open a larger/printable PDF file or call 866-CALL-MWV. We hope to see you there!

FrameWorks Features Families - WV adoptive families!

Pictured Above: The Boyles Family

Last year, FrameWorks started an Adoptive Family Portrait Project to showcase the positive aspects of adopting through the foster care system. As a part of our 2008 National Adoption Month event, we displayed these photos throughout the lower rotunda of the WV Capitol Building and it was very inspiring to see so many loving families who have opened their lives and hearts to foster children. As a part of that project, the families agreed that we could continue to use the photos and their stories to continue this showcase of love. While not all of the participating families have yet been added to our website, you can read several stories by visiting our website, click here: WV Adoptive Families.

2009 Drawing Contest Update!

We have great news! Sheetz is making a donation to the 2009 National Adoption Month Drawing Contest for the purchase of gift cards for prizes! We now have a very nice Sony Cybershot Digital Camera with a memory card for the grand prize winner, and funding to provide gift cards to many of the children who participate!

We are excited about this year's drawing contest as entries have slowly started making their way into our mailbox, however, we feel that more time should be allotted for the children/youth to submit their art and we have extended the due date until October 28th. We will be accepting art for the drawing contest as long as it is post marked by October 28th! So please, spread the word and submit your children's/youth's artwork - they have a great chance of winning a prize. Also, art is such a wonderful creative outlet of expression and with this year's theme "My Dreams" we hope that the children and youth who participate are able to realize their strengths and know that their dreams and goals are limitless.

We are so grateful to the donor of the digital camera and to Sheetz for providing prize money for this great cause. Thank you to everyone who has helped out, we can't wait to post photos of the art after the final submissions are made. To learn more and download the entry form, please click here: 2009 Drawing Contest.