Announcement: Mini-Grants for adoptive and foster family support groups in WV

Five $500.00 mini-grants will be issued to adoptive and foster family support groups in West Virginia. To apply for a mini-grant, please send your completed application packets to Mission West Virginia by June 25th, 2010. The grant application can be downloaded by clicking here: MWV Mini-Grant Application.

Preference will be given to newly formed or start-up groups. Preference will also be given to groups that have never received a mini-grant from Mission West Virginia before.

There are a few grant guidelines that can also be found by downloading the application.

If you have any questions about the application please call Rachel Probst at 866-CALL-MWV or email rprobst@missionwv.org

This project is made possible by the support of the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.

Walk Me Home Photos!

WOW! Walk Me Home was AWESOME again this year! Check out this animoto video of photos that were taken at the walk. We can always add more photos to the video, so if you have some to share - please send them our way!

Thanks again to everyone who took part in making this event so successful and fun!

Walk Me Home was a success!

Pictured above: Kaitlyn Boyles, daughter of Rita and Bob Boyes, at Walk Me Home 2010

Thank you to everyone who made Walk Me Home a successful event this year! We were able to raise near $10,000 and around 150 people came out on May 15th to walk.

There have been a couple newspaper articles published about our walk, so please click on the links below to read more!

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/briefs/x631787634/Walk-for-foster-care-a-success

http://wvgazette.com/News/201005211040

We will be posting more photos soon!

Walk Me Home

Click here to watch the Walk Me Home video: Walk Me Home

Walk Me Home is on Saturday and we hope to see you there! It is really important that we recognize National Foster Care Month and honor those who open their homes and provide foster care. In America, there are over 500,000 children in foster care and in WV there are approximately 4,000 children in the state's care. Please help us to recognize the compassionate people who make a difference in the lives of children by serving as foster parents, relative caregivers, mentors, advocates, social workers and volunteers. Thank to these people, many children and teens will either safely reunite with their parents, be care for by relatives, or be adopted by loving families.

There are approximately 1,000 children in WV who are legally eligible to be adopted. Some of those children as well as adoptive/foster families are featured in a video we have made that features the Walk Me Home theme song. To view this video, please click on the link at the top of this article.

We thank all of those who work to better the lives of children. And while a lot is being done to help our youth, more help is needed. According to information provided by the National Association of Foster Parents, if nothing changes by 2020:

- Nearly 14 million confirmed cases of child abuse and neglect will be reported
- 22,500 children will die of abuse or neglect, most before their fifth birthday
- More than 9,000,000 children will experience the foster care system
- More than 300,000 children will age of our foster care system, in poor health and ill-prepared for success in higher education, technical college or the workforce
- 99,000 former foster youth, who aged out of the system, can expect to experience homelessness.

So please, if you haven't already registered or sponsored a walker, visit http://www.walkmehome.org/ to do so!

We can't wait to see you all on Saturday!

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.

FrameWorks Newsletter Spring 2010

We know you have been waiting in anticipation for the Spring 2010 issue of the FrameWorks Newsletter and now you are in luck! We hope you take a couple minutes out of your busy day to read the newsletter and comment as well. You can open a PDF file of the newsletter by clicking on the image above. If you have any problems opening the newsletter, please let us know.

What do you like most about the FrameWorks Newsletter and what would you like to see more of? Is there a topic you would like to learn more about? Let us know and we will try our best to get it into the Summer 2010 newsletter.

Also, if you would like to read past FrameWorks Newsletters, click here: Newsletter Archive

Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your day!

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!