March 2024 Issue 72
OLR Reminders
When you begin fostering, veteran caregivers will often tell you that it is not a matter of "if" but "when" there is a licensing concern. In most cases, it is easily remedied and often preventable. Below are some reminders from the OLR Concerns Unit to help you out:
- UIRs - When in doubt, fill it out! If you're not sure whether or not an incident or injury warrants an Unusual Incident Report or your gut is telling you to document it, go ahead and complete one anyway. It is better to have the documentation of an event and not need it than to need it and not have it.
- Absolutely no cameras in the bedrooms, even decoys. All children deserve privacy. If you have concerns about behaviors or activities in the bedroom, please reach out to your licensing agency for support.
- You cannot accept placement of a child while there is an open concern. This includes respite.
- If DCS arrives to the home and requests to see the children in DCS care, you must let DCS into the home. DCS is the legal guardian and may request contact with the children at any time. Scheduling ahead is a courtesy but is not required, particularly if there is a safety concern.
- Your licensing agency is partnered with DCS to be your family's support throughout your fostering journey, including bumps in the road. Reach out to your licensing worker for support, such as support groups or a mentor who has experienced something similar.
Special Day for Special Kids
Foster Arizona Soccer Clinic
Foster Arizona is excited to offer a soccer clinic for kids in foster care ages 8-13. We are partnering with the Head Coach Chris Sager at Phoenix Community College! Alex Sachs, a 2004 Olympic silver medalist will be joining us in the fun! She played for the Brazilian National Soccer team and was inducted into the Brazilian Soccer School Hall of Fame in 2005. Come learn some new skills, make some memories, and enjoy lunch with us after!
- Date: March 9, 9am-12pm
- Location: 1202 W Thomas Road Phoenix, AZ 85013
- Cost: FREE (lunch included)
- Requirements: Must be a current foster placement, Notice to Provider MUST be uploaded for current placement, must be between the ages of 8-13 years old co-ed
Pinal County Community Connections Summit
Pinal County Family Court presents the Community Connections Summit. This is a FREE training that will include sessions on trauma, parenting, co-parenting and more. The event will take place at the beautiful Encanterra Country Club on 3/14 8:30-4:30, and lunch will be provided.
College for Youth in Care Training
Azura Free Virtual Reading Program
Mentor Program
Arizonans for Children has mentors available for kiddos between the ages of 5-18 with an open DCS case in Maricopa County. Children can be in any placement setting, including licensed, kinship, and congregate care. Children cannot have a current safety plan due to behavior, as volunteers are not professionally trained to manage that level of need. Anyone on the child's team can complete the application, as long as they have sufficient information on the child's case.
Foster Cooperative
Foster Cooperative is an open-sourced online community powered by Foster Arizona for anyone helping children and youth facing adversity to find connections, peer support, quality resources and training, community events, and innovative communication methods to be empowered with tools needed to succeed.
ASA Now
ASA Now is a non-profit organization that ADVOCATES for, SUPPORTS, and ASSISTS children and families impacted by foster care. We are passionate about providing support to families and professionals by restoring hope and empowering them to better serve these children in need.
Services we offer include tutoring & extracurricular activities, food pantry, clothing, and meeting basic necessities. Other services include life skills for youth, respite care, therapeutic programs, family activities, peer-to-peer support groups, education and training on utilizing Jacob's Law to obtain behavioral health services, providing resources to families and caregivers to successfully navigate the foster care system, raising awareness, recruiting new foster families, and advocating for families and their children.
The Foster Alliance
The Foster Alliance provides essential needs for children in foster care in an effort to help every foster child feel safe and loved. Our programs provide beds, clothing, hygiene items, birthday packages, backpacks filled with school supplies, licensing safety items, foster footlockers, and more. Our services are open to kinship and foster families with a current Notice to Provider.
Arizona Association for Foster and Adoptive Parents
Christian Family Care Training
Helen's Hope Chest
At Helen's Hope Chest, our mission is to engage the community to provide for the basic needs of children and teens in foster and kinship care. Helen's provides more than just clothes for kids in care. It is important that every youth who comes through our door feels a sense of confidence, acceptance, and dignity. Our boutique environment allows kids to choose their favorite items and feel like they are in a regular store, all at no cost to the foster/kinship family.
Families with a current foster or kinship placement are encouraged to call us at 480-969-5411 to schedule an appointment.
A Mighty Change of Heart
A Mighty Change of Heart provides FREE duffle bags to foster children with new, age-appropriate items inside: 2 outfits, shoes & socks, underwear, a book, diapers/wipes, hygiene items, and more. These bags have the children’s names embroidered on them and are something that they can call their very own. They have delivered over 3,500 bags across the state.
Please check out their website for more information: www.amchaz.com. If your family, business, church group, or school would be interested in holding a donation drive, please contact A Mighty Change of Heart. Items are always needed.
Aviva Children's Services - Tucson
More Than a Bed - Tucson
Spreading Threads - Tucson
Spreading Threads is a grassroots, nonprofit community clothing bank that provides free clothes to foster youth in southern Arizona. The organization was founded by two foster moms in Tucson who have fostered and adopted several children in Arizona. Your donations go directly to local children in need. On the second Saturday of each month, foster, adoptive, and kinship families can visit the clothing bank. A Notice to Provider will be needed. The clothing bank events are held at 2945 N Flowing Wells in Tucson.
STEP Training- Tucson
Support, Tools, and Education for Parents (STEP) is designed to build positive relationships between family members. It provides a safe space to discuss topics that may be too difficult to talk about at home. These conversations are about peer pressure, stress, and the importance of working together as a team. When caregivers and children work together, it creates a stronger family! The Children’s Advocacy Center understands that family does not always mean a biological parent and child. STEP is a program that will benefit the whole family, including biological, foster, kinship, and adoptive families.
Families enrolled in STEP will meet virtually each week. Each session consists of different topics, such as communication, stress management, substance abuse prevention, and how to talk to your child about difficult topics (identifying potential child abusers, child abuse, healthy and concerning sexualized behavior), each session building on the next. Child care will be available when classes are offered in person again. For questions, please contact Jackie Ballesteros at jballesteros@soazadvocacy.org or 520-724-2148.
Warmline Supports Kinship and Foster Families
The Foster Parent Warmline is available for kinship families and licensed foster parents. While not an emergency number, Warmline staff can assist with information, timely communication, and support. It is not intended to discourage or replace direct and regular communication between the DCS Specialist and the out-of-home caregiver. You can reach the Warmline by calling 1-877-KIDSNEEDU (1-877-543-7633) and selecting Option 3. Please leave a message with your name and contact information in order to receive a call back.
Children's Heart Gallery
More than 70 percent of the children in need of forever families are adopted by their relatives or foster parents. For the remainder, special recruitment efforts like the Heart Gallery are used to connect them with a forever family.
The children featured in the Heart Gallery represent all ethnic groups and range in age from toddlers to teenagers. Some have special behavioral or medical needs, some are without siblings, and others are in groups of siblings.
Rayne and Skyler
Rayne is happy and easy going. She enjoys school, and her favorite subjects are math and reading. Rayne likes to collect stuffed animals and watch kids YouTube. She loves running around the yard and riding her bike with her brother. Rayne enjoys engaging in family activities such as puzzles and dinners.
Skyler enjoys the long breaks he gets from school but also enjoys his favorite subject, math. Skyler enjoys video games and riding his bike with his sister. When it is hot outside, you will find Skyler in the pool swimming. He is also a fan of sports, particularly basketball.
Rayne was born in 2010, and Skyler was born in 2012.
Ivanking
Ivanking is a delightful and curious young man who is looking for a loving family to call his own. He has a sweet and friendly personality that shines through in everything he does. Ivanking absolutely loves spending time with his friends, family and the people he cares about, and playing video games. Whether it's virtual adventures or board games with others, he's always up for some fun and friendly competition. When the weather is nice, you'll find him outdoors, enjoying the beauty of nature. He particularly likes the cold weather and can't resist the joy of playing in the snow and building a snowman.
Ivanking was born in 2010.
Olivia
Olivia is a sweet, happy little girl with a bright smile and a strong spirit. She enjoys listening to soft, soothing classical music, taking warm baths, playing with her rattle, and snuggling up with a soft blanket and her favorite stuffed animal. Olivia also loves to be sung to and her hand held. Olivia especially enjoys being out in the sunshine with people who are familiar to her. Although Olivia cannot express herself through words, she has a unique way of communicating. She recognizes the voices of those around her and forms a deep unspoken bond with her caregivers. Her ability to connect on this profound level demonstrates the immense capacity of the human heart to love and be loved, transcending words.
Olivia was born in 2015.
AZ Families Thrive is published monthly by the Arizona Department of Child Safety to inform foster, kinship, and adoptive families across the state. Rhiannon Schaudt-Hobkirk created this edition. Please feel free to email with questions, comments, or content you may be interested in seeing in future editions. Sign up to receive email updates when new issues are posted.
Interested in becoming a foster or adoptive parent? Call us: 1-877-KIDS-NEEDU (1-877-543-7633) or email us: FosterAdoption@azdcs.gov. Visit us online: www.azkidsneedu.gov.
To report child abuse or neglect: 1-888-SOS-CHILD