COALTON A Halloween-themed carnival for foster families was more than just games and candy on Friday, but a way to shine awareness on foster care improvement.
Foster families and social resources — local and regional — filled the Boyd County Expo building on the fairgrounds on Friday evening for food, crafts and games.
Tina Frisby, of R&C Family Services, said the event served as a way to shine light on resources and social services available to foster families.
“This helps the kids see us as workers in a different light because they normally see us as coming up with our pen and paper and they are scared because we’ve done removals,” Frisby said. With the carnival event Friday, “they are able to see us in a different light and they are also able to meet our regional staff.”
Safe Harbor of Northeastern Kentucky, KAPE, Kentucky’s Hands, Hope’s Place, Humana and other services were present at the event. Families were greeted at the door, where they waited in line for hot food and pizza from Giovanni’s.
Allison Colegrove, social worker of the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, said the event was made through collaborations and donations.
“This is an event that we collaborate on and we really wanted to bring awareness for foster care improvement,” Colegrove said. “It’s also an event to be able to show support and bring community partners to our foster families so they know there are resources out there.
“But most of all, it’s to love on our kiddos and for them to know they have all these people loving them and backing them,” she said.
Among those at many tables set up inside the building was Georgie Kincer with Wendy’s Wonderful Kids — which works with older youth. She said the event served as a way for families to make connections.
“It brings together so many people that otherwise wouldn’t be in the same room to network to get to know one another,” Kincer said. “We have found many people here that have different resources that we were not aware of that we can now take back to our youth to better serve them.
“We are here to fellowship and recognize the DCBS Foster Families and youth in the northeastern region,” she added. “We are all across the region and work with youth that are considered as ‘hard-to-place youth.'”
She said adoption isn’t just about finding them a home, but a home where they can feel loved and wanted.
“Our motto is ‘unadoptable is unacceptable,’ and what we strive for is to find every kid there forever home,” she said. “It’s not necessarily about finding a home for the kids, it’s finding a place that they mesh and feel loved. … This job can be very rewarding at times. but it can be heartbreaking, too,” she said.
“I think that you learn its the small wins that you take, the little steps and the little strides,” Kincer added.
Despite the fun games and crafts for the kids, the event also served as a way to help make children feel more at ease if they happen to make contact in the future.
“We are actually doing this as a retention for foster families to show that we appreciate them and that way the kids can feel more at ease,” Frisby said. “As far as having our resources here — our community partners, people that we work with that we make referrals for — but then we are also trying to recruit more foster parents to spread the awareness.”
The event is all based on donations from other people, she added.
“We don’t actually have those funds; we have depended on all the other agencies to make this happen,” she said. “It’s not only R&C that is here, the local counties’ social workers and our regional staff is here.”
The event was sponsored by DCBS, R&C and Community Partners.
(606) 326-2657 |
ajohnson@dailyindependent.com
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