May is an important opportunity to raise awareness about the community’s need for fosters.
Foster Care Awareness Month
May is National Foster Care Awareness month. Ama Bortsie and Angie Lewis visited MassAppeal to speak about the Helix Human Services’ Comprehensive Foster Care program, and the need of foster parents nationally and statewide.
What is Comprehensive Foster Care?
Comprehensive Foster Care (CFC), a unique program through which foster families provide a home to one or two children and/or adolescents in need of more support than traditional foster care can offer. This includes a higher level of structure and supervision, advocacy and comprehensive wraparound services from a team that may include a case manager, DCF, a therapist, a physician, an attorney, an educational advocate, and other community resources.
Increasing Need for Foster Parents
Foster care touches every community regardless of socioeconomic status or geographic location. Foster children are in your child’s school, they play with your children at the park, and they attend church with your family. The more we can raise awareness about foster care in our communities, the more these children and their families will feel supported and strengthened.
At any given moment, there are around 400,000 foster children in the United States — 9,598 of them are here in Massachusetts, with over 1,955 in Western Massachusetts. As this number continues to grow, so does the need for safe, loving homes. YOU can bring HOPE when kids need it most.
About Helix Human Services
Helix Human Services provides trauma-informed therapeutic and educational services to diverse children and families, building the foundation for lifelong success at home, school, and in the community. We do everything in our power to help traumatized children, families, and adults find their resilience and strength.
Learn more
For more information about becoming a foster parent for Helix Human Services please contact Gladys Cornier at 413.356.5351 or email GCornier@helixhumanservices.org. or visit https://helixhumanservices.org/programs/comprehensive-foster-care-program/
See the Mass Appeal segment here.