TO: Board of Supervisors
FROM: Health and Human Services Agency
MEETING DATE: May 5, 2020
DEPARTMENT CONTACT:
Tammy Moss Chandler
PHONE:
463-7774
DEPARTMENT CONTACT:
Jena Conner
PHONE:
463-7971
ITEM TYPE: Consent Agenda
TIME ALLOCATED FOR ITEM: N/A
AGENDA TITLE:
title
Adoption of Proclamation Recognizing May 2020 As National Foster Care Month in Mendocino County
End
RECOMMENDED ACTION/MOTION:
recommendation
Adopt Proclamation recognizing May 2020 as National Foster Care Month in Mendocino County; and authorize Chair to sign same.
End
PREVIOUS BOARD/BOARD COMMITTEE ACTIONS:
None.
SUMMARY OF REQUEST:
In 1988, President Reagan issued the first Presidential proclamation establishing May as National Foster Care Month. Since then, May has been an annual time to recognize and acknowledge foster parents, relative caregivers, child welfare professionals and other members of the community who help children and youth in foster care. This year's national theme is "Foster Care as a Support to Families, Not a Substitute for Parents."
Foster care is an important temporary, last resort service for children and youth who cannot safely remain with their birth families. Mendocino County currently has over 200 foster children in care, yet there is an increasing shortage of local foster families, even more so during the COVID-19 pandemic, who are willing to provide this important care for teens, children with complex behavioral and mental health needs and sibling groups. This results in foster children being placed out of county and/or separated from their siblings which creates significant barriers to successful reunification between foster children and their birth families.
Foster families play a critical role in the lives of foster children, caring for and nurturing them and helping reduce the trauma of separation, while working with birth families, Family & Children's Services (FCS) and community agencies to strengthen birth families' abi...
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