National Recognition for Fairfax Foster Care and Adoption

Fairfax County Department of Family Services
12011 Government Center Parkway, Suite 500
Fairfax, VA 22035-1102
Contact: Belinda Buescher, Public Information Officer
703-324-7758, TTY 703-222-9452
DFSPIO@fairfaxcounty.gov

December 12, 2007

National recognition for Fairfax foster care and adoption initiative

Fairfax County's foster care and adoption initiative, Fairfax Families4Kids, is receiving national attention this week at a conference -- “Shared Beliefs, Shared Values: Achieving Excellence in Adoption and Foster Care” -- sponsored by the Child Welfare League of America.

Carolyn Fowler, Marilyn Durbin, and Beverly Howard, of the county's Department of Family Services, were invited to the CWLA conference in New Orleans this week to present a workshop to share the FF4K model with other child welfare professionals. They describe the Fairfax program as one that “elicits the power of the child in the adoption planning process.”

The innovative Fairfax Families4Kids program engages foster care youth in a proactive, multifaceted public effort to find adoptive homes. In the process, the young people are finding themselves.

"The beauty of Fairfax Families4Kids is that the children genuinely support each other and feel empowered,” says program coordinator Beverly Howard. “They know that they have a voice in the identification and recruitment of potential adoptive families."

Community involvement is key to the program’s success. Fairfax Families4Kids has developed a regional network of dedicated volunteers and sponsors, including faith communities, high school students, businesses, government employees and dedicated individuals who sponsor events, mentor the children, donate special skills and talents and work in the community to help find families for these children.

Currently Fairfax County’s Department of Family Services is seeking adoptive homes for 21 children in foster care.

For more information about Fairfax Families4Kids, visit http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dfs/childrenyouth/ff4kids.htm

For information about becoming a foster or adoptive parent, visit www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dfs or call 703-324-7639, TTY 703-222-9452.