Welcome to the 2018 September inaugural issue of Foster Family News, a monthly newsletter for current and potential Fairfax County foster parents. The newsletter is designed to keep foster parents informed about all the new and notable happenings in Fairfax County. Find out what the Foster Care & Adoption program has planned for foster families, plus stay on top of trends, trainings and policy changes.

Table of Contents
View from Campus Rec ‘n Roll at Gum Springs: A Respite Program for Adoptive Families Family Fun Fair Frequently Asked Questions: Who is permitted to babysit?	Staff Spotlight: Vellma Lukic Donors and Sponsors Highlights: Touching Heart and Greater Little Zion Baptist Church of Fairfax Upcoming Trainings

When a group of high school students headed south for a five-day tour of several Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) last March, a couple of kids in foster care from Fairfax County were in the mix.

The tour, developed by former educators Theodore and Zella Jones for their church, First AME of Manassas, Virginia, is in its ninth year, but this is the first year youth in foster care participated, Charisma Canty, life skills coordinator in Fairfax County’s Foster Care and Adoption program, explained.

The First AME Talented Tenth Education Committee drafts a list each year of schools for potential visits, and this year 39 students traveled to Florida A&M (Tallahassee, Florida), South Carolina State and Claflin universities (Orangeburg, South Carolina), Johnson C. Smith University (Charlotte, North Carolina), Livingstone University (Salisbury, North Carolina), Fayetteville State University (Fayetteville, North Carolina) and St. Augustine’s University (Raleigh, North Carolina).

“Some schools - ones that already have a lot of applicants - don’t let large groups come in for a visit,” Canty said. “But HBCUs need more exposure. A lot of the kids aren’t even aware they’re out there.”

At the first stop, each student received a small notebook - their “passport”- to take notes comparing costs, school size, admission requirements, scholarship options and popular majors at each college. The students also used these passports to collect stickers for various activities, including being on time, asking questions, being attentive and taking notes. Students with the most stickers at the end of the tour were awarded prizes.

Each stop was jam-packed with activities, including campus tours, meet and greet with current students, and informational meetings with administration and professors.

Students learned a ton of information about each college. For instance, Florida A&M’s business program is so top-notch that Harvard University models several elements of its business program after it. South Carolina State is the only HBCU in the country to offer a bachelor of science in nuclear engineering. Johnson C. Smith partners with Charlotte School of Law to offer a program that allows students to complete their undergraduate studies and law school in only six years. And Fayetteville State offers a similar program in conjunction with North Carolina State University that enables students to obtain two STEM bachelor degrees (chemistry and chemical engineering) in five years.

The tour did present a few hardships for the chaperones, namely long hours and the long drive. “It was definitely a little exhausting,” Canty said. “The teens like to stay up late, and we can’t go to bed before they do.”

But that discomfort was minor compared to the rewards. “The best thing about the tour? Seeing how youth developed over the course of it,” Canty said. “One student was very withdrawn and didn’t really want to be there. By the end, she’d started to connect. One of our foster youth spoke to the president of Claflin one on one. This was the first time she’d asked a question on the entire tour!”

Even better? Helping students realize there is a college out there that is right for them. On that front, the tour was a success, Canty said. “Some of the kids from this tour have already enrolled at schools we visited!”

Know Before You Go

• The tour is open to any high schooler in grades 9-12. “A lot of youth go all four years,” Canty said. “Many can’t picture themselves in college. Their perspective changes when they go to an actual campus.”
• The tour costs $525. This covers the registration fee, lodging, breakfast, and lunch each day. Students should bring an additional $125 to cover dinner, snacks and souvenirs. Fairfax County’s Foster Care and Adoption program covered the $525 for its kids on the tour and provided $125 Visa gift cards for the other meals and incidentals. “We wanted normalcy for our teens in foster care,” Canty said.
• Schools for the 2019 tour are being selected now, and application and fee deadlines for the trip will be announced in December.

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Where do Fairfax County’s adoptive parents and their children go when they need respite care? Until recently, the answer to this question was cloudy.

Then a pilot program, a partnership between the Department of Family Services (DFS), the Department of Neighborhood and Community Services (NCS) and United Methodist Family Services (UMFS), came into focus. The program was designed to emulate a successful one in Delaware, which has a state grant to work with pre- and post-adoptive families.

“Some of our adoptive parents have been telling us they need respite care. But a lot of the therapeutic respite care programs only take kids still in our care,” said Mary Adamchak, supervisor, Post Adoption Services, foster Care & Adoption, Resource & Support Program. “[Fairfax’s] pilot respite program is designed to capture kids who don’t have many friends - and to give parents a break.”

Through Fairfax’s pilot partnership program, eight adoptees with special needs spent four hours on five recent Saturdays (one per month) at the Gum Springs Recreation Center improving their social skills and building friendships. The county provided snacks and lunch (usually pizza). So far, it’s meeting all its metrics.

“We found that kids are forming friendships and parents are forming friendships with other parents,” Adamchak said. “Parents tell us the kids love coming here and meeting new friends. But the key really is NCS; without them, it’s a no-go.”

NCS provides programming for all ages - youth to seniors - to include individuals with a variety of disabilities at nine community centers and 14 senior centers throughout the county. “With these resources, and a mission to bring people and resources together to strengthen the well-being of individuals and communities, we were a natural partner!” said Sandi Dallhoff, NCS branch manager.

Key to this partnership, and the program’s success, is staffing. “We had an excellent group of staff [with] backgrounds in programming and experience working in recreational settings with youth as well as teens. We also had a great staff-to-youth ratio, which allowed for many opportunities for one on ones with the them,” said Jernita Smith, program coordinator with Fairfax Families 4 Kids (a mentoring program for older youth in foster care).

“You also have to have staff that are relatable and genuinely have a desire to work with kids - staff who are creative and know how to use recreational activities to help youth build a variety of skills and accomplish different goals,” Smith continued. “Every activity had a purpose and was developed to help the youth build their confidence, social skills, leisure interests, critical thinking or problem solving skills.”

One major success story from the program centers around a 14-year-old with extreme separation anxiety about being away from his mother. “Our wonderful staff made a deal that his mom would stay in the center but she would not be in the [same] room. The participant was a little apprehensive at first. When we would go to different locations in the center, he would check to make sure his mother was still there, and then he would be fine,” Jernita Smith said. “He was very attached to a certain toy and talked about it a lot, so our next activity the following month, we did an advanced version of show and tell and allowed him to bring his toy. He was so happy to share it, he didn’t mind his mother leaving. He also felt comfortable with staff and met a few friends.”

By the final Saturday of the pilot program, the youth and staff took a mini field trip - without his mother. “He was fine and interacted well with the other kids,” Smith said.

Funding for the pilot program ran out over the summer, but DFS received a state grant so Rec ‘n Roll can continue when school starts again in the fall. 

In a perfect world, Mary Adamchak would love to see participants form friendships outside of the program, for parents to get to know other parents and have some support, and to perhaps one day open up to other adjacent jurisdictions - for example, kids adopted through Fairfax, but living in Alexandria and Arlington.

Currently, Rec ‘n Roll is “only open to kids adopted through and living in Fairfax,” Adamchak said. “For now, we’re getting the results we hoped for. It’s so much fun seeing kids being happy and making friends.”

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Foster and adoptive families, friends, and community volunteers gathered at Burke Lake Park in August for the Foster Care and Adoption Fun Fair. This special event provides an important opportunity for children to spend quality time with their siblings and other family members, while being treated to delicious food, games, and prizes. 

This was Touching Heart’s ninth year participating in the Fun Fair. We were proud to provide the popular activities station with the generous support of ARG and RSA, two companies that prioritize giving back to their communities. 

Children had a blast digging into fun crafts, including rock painting, slime making, bracelet making, and face painting.

Special thanks to ARG and RSA volunteers for helping make this a memorable day for children of foster care and adoptive families. We are honored to be a part of such a special event!