Kinship Specific News, Resources, Schedules, and More -- direct to you from Foster Kinship
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A Note from the Executive Director
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As the weather heats up so has the fun at Foster Kinship! We have been excited to offer more self-care and respite opportunities for kinship caregivers. We have had two yoga sessions, kids movie nights, and recently finished an art camp for kids over spring break! If you would like to participate in any upcoming events make sure you are connected with us on our Facebook Page here:
www.Facebook/FosterKinship or request to join our closed group just for kinship caregivers:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/NVKinshipCaregivers/ .
The hot weather (and me entering my third trimester of pregnancy) also means we are starting Snow Cone Thursdays at our office, if you happen to have an appointment during that time we would be happy to make you one too :).
We are hard at work on our statewide expansion of our Kinship Navigator Program. If you reside outside of Clark County and are looking for resources and support to raise your relatives children, we can help! Call us toll free at (844) 810-1667 to get started.
Finally, we are excited to announce that our Kinship Advocacy Network group is making progress on some really important legislation. A.B. 498 would provide fictive kin caregivers of children in foster care access to the child-only TANF grant, just like relatives. To learn more and track the bill,
click here.
As always, let us know how we can support you! We are here to ensure kinship families have what they need to succeed, and we are open to feedback to ensure we are meeting your needs. Reach out to me anytime at
Ali@FosterKinship.org- I'd love to hear from you.
Ali
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Kinship Navigator Program
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Intake Coordinators
Emily Morales
Michelle Pulido
Family Advocates
Nani Garrett - Program Manager
Anntesha Chesterton
Sandy Vargas
Leah Dods
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Our amazing
Intake Coordinators
are just call away ready to provide you with information, referrals, and assessments to schedule you with our advocates.
Our wonderful
Family Advocates
are always available by appointment Monday through Friday to help with completing guardianship, application assistance such as Child-Only TANF, SNAP, and Medicaid. And to provide you with a number of referrals community resources.
Please give us a call 702-546-9988 or toll-free 844-810-1667.
CLICK HERE
to check out our website and find a full list of services we offer.
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Community Spotlight!
Project 150 - Betty's Clothing Showroom
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Project 150 is an amazing agency, Betty's Clothing Showroom is their clothing resource, free for High School Students with a school ID,
Betty's Clothing Showroom is open Monday through Thursday from 2:00PM to 5:00PM, located at 3600 N. Rancho Dr. Las Vegas, NV 89130.
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Evening Support Group
2nd Tuesday of the Month
Child Care & Dinner Provided
6:00PM to 7:30PM
Afternoon Support Group
3rd Thursday of the Month
No Child Care Available, Lap Babies Welcome
1:00PM to 2:00PM
Grupo De Apoyo En Espanol
3r Martes Del Mes
No Hay Guarderia
Hora: 1:00PM to 2:00PM
Online Support Group
On Facebook
Search > Nevada Kinship Caregivers
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QUALIFYING FOR HOLIDAY ASSISTANCE
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The
Holiday Season
might feel far away but don't forget that to qualify for Thanksgiving boxes and Christmas lists or any other family events we offer, you
must
attend at least one support group at either times/days to be put on a list to be part of any of our holiday events.
You will not qualify if you have not attended a support group.
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We have two new staff members!
We are proud to introduce Emily Morales as our Intake Coordinator and Nadine Garcia our Childcare Specialist. They bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to Foster Kinship and we are lucky to have them as new additions to our team. Take a look at their bio's below.
CLICK HERE
to view all our wonderful staff and their bio's.
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Emily Morales, Intake Coordinator
A native of Las Vegas, Emily holds an Associates Degree from the College of Southern Nevada. As a young widow and single mother of five beautiful, unique children, Emily is very passionate when it comes to helping families surviving and thriving through the process of grief. She lost her husband too early in 2016 and continues to navigate through life's challenges with her children. Her professional background is in Human Resources and Office Management. Emily has a gift of seeking resources within our community and loves to self-care with scrapbooking and crafts. She can be reached at Emily@FosterKinship.org.
Nadine Garcia, Childcare Specialist
Nadine has a B.A. in Early Childhood Education and associates degree child development and liberal studies. She has spent 13 years teaching early childhood education. Her experience includes working at an inclusive childcare center that cared for children with ADD, ADHS, PTSD, Autism, Down Syndrome, and neuro-typical developing children. Nadine brings her expertise teaching children with additional needs to the Foster Kinship childcare program.
Nadine was raised in Los Angeles, CA with 3 biological and 1 adopted sibling, and has experience with kinship care in her extended family. When she is not teaching, she loves being with her husband, daughter, and 3 dogs at the river. She can be reached at Nadine@FosterKinship.org.
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What is
Self-Care? To care for ones self.
Kinship caregivers are consistently giving their all to the children that they are committed to raising and it can be hard to even find the time for *self-care*. We want to know, are you taking time for yourself? How do you practice self-care?
Some ideas you could try to achieve some self-care into your personal schedule, without changing too much or paying for much more could be....
- Establish a sleep routine.
- Aim for a healthy diet.
- Go for a walk
We are always looking for fun ways to self-care. One way is
CRAFTING. Crafting is a creative way to practice self-care alone or with others.
If you are interested in making cards, scrapbooking, or just making cute stuff, please stay tuned for information on our CLOSED Facebook Group - Nevada Kinship Caregivers.
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This quarter on
Kid's Corner
, we wanted to highlight some awesome
books you can use to talk to your kids about a wide range of difficult topics.
Let's be honest, it can be hard to talk to children about feelings, loss, abuse, being in foster care, living away from their parents. Utilizing books can be a wonderful tool to open up conversations. Here's a list of books we recommend. If you ever want to review one of the books prior to purchasing, please let us know and you can stop by our office! CLICK the title to go Amazon, if your interested in purchasing.
Shop
Amazon Smile and a portion of your purchase goes back to Foster Kinship.
CLICK HERE!
A great book to discuss real feelings.
Sherman Smith saw a terrible thing. He had many negative feelings and many behaviors because of how the terrible things made him feel. He started feeling better once he talked to a counselor.
A little flower is neglected by her family until one day she is placed with a new family that meets her needs.
From a child's perspective. A girl loses her sister after she gets sick. She walks you through the grief and loss, she experiences.
A packet of seeds is given away as a random act of kindness and you'll see how it positively impacts the entire community.
A story about a dog who's had some accidents and moved to two different homes.
Children in foster care here a lot of maybes. This book goes through the many maybes children here's but focuses on kids being kids.
This book is easy to understand for many different ages. The author discusses sexual abuse, what is it, what is safe touch, who to talk to if you are being hurt, and the importance of talking to a safe adult.
A book about a child who has experienced the loss of a person.
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Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI)
TBRI helps with children from trauma-- or any child. This intervention works with the whole child by using a set of principles and strategies that give parents and professionals the tools to bring healing and well-being to children and adolescents who come from "hard places."
Each newsletter we will include tidbits from TBRI and connecting strategies to help you connecting with the children in your care.
Connecting Strategies
Have a YES Basket.
YES baskets helps the child to ask with good words and good eyes (providing good eye contact with the caregiver). By providing children with opportunities of YES, the caregiver is telling the child
"I want the opportunity to say yes to you and I want the opportunity to give you what someone should have created when you were younger."
Behavior is the language of unmet need. Give your children more YES'S so there is more buy-in. Our children NEED to hear YES.
An example--when our children are asking for a snack right as your putting dinner on the table, our first instinct is to say NO as we are thinking *did you not see me cook dinner for the last hour?!*. This is the perfect opportunity to put a YES in their basket. "Yes! You can have a snack after you finish your dinner. Do you want the snack in your pocket or on the table?".
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Kinship Licensing Classes
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We continue to offer Kinship Licensing classes for all caregivers caring for a relative placed with them by Department of Family Services.
If you have any questions about the specific licensing class schedule,
CLICK HERE
to view our website for a monthly list of our classes. As a reminder, you MUST be registered for classes by your DFS Licensing Technician.
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CPR and Car Seat Class Schedule
Remember CPR (all caregivers that will be on the license) and Car Seat (if you have kids 6 and under) classes are required for licensing. You must be registered for classes in order to attend. Give us a call to sign up 702-546-9988!
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Online QPI Training for Initial and Re-Licensing
If you need help accessing a computer to complete the online training hours for initial licensing (3 hours) or re-licensing (12 hours), please give us a call to schedule a time to use our computers! 702-546-9988.
We are also holding group viewings, with childcare (LIMITED SPACE) for the Initial Licensing videos -- Normalcy and Emergency Preparedness. You must call to RSVP and register children for child care.
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K.A.N. Meetings
KAN stands for Kinship Advocacy Meeting
Foster Kinship's KAN meeting offer caregivers to come together to have their voices heard.
Our vision is to have a group of grassroots activists, who want to see change within our system, share their stories with leaders and policy makers and encourage positive change for kinship families.
Some of our group priorities will include:
1. Making Child only TANF available to fictive kin who have foster care placements
2. Opening up subsidized guardianship (KinGap) to fictive kin
3. Looking at the termination of guardianship process
We are strong together! Our KAN meetings will be held at our office every last Thursday of the month from 5PM to 6PM. A little time our of your day can make a big change for our children.
Meeting Dates
April 25, 2019
May 23, 2019
June 27, 2019
July 25th, 2019
August 22nd, 2019
September 26th. 2019
October 24th, 2019
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Engaging with Birth Parents
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"Setting boundaries is a key part of managing the relationship between the child and their birth parents"
Engaging with birth parents can be incredibly complex and difficult for kinship caregivers. Much of the research surrounding engaging with birth parents is directed at "resource parents" or traditional foster parents. Generations United, a national leader in improving the lives of everyone through collaboration created a resource/tip sheet to help kinship caregivers engage with birth parents.
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Interested in Volunteering?
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Please contact Leah at Leah@FosterKinship.org or via phone 702-546-9988
What do our Volunteers do?
Our volunteers are key to providing support to both our families and our staff. We have opportunities for individuals and groups!
In the Office
(good for individuals):
- Receive & sort donations
- Set-up donations
- Count inventory
- Clerical work
- Office clean-up
- Assist with babies/children (must pass a background check)
Family Events
(great for larger groups):
- Back to School Event - Tentative for July
- Kinship Month Celebration - Tuesday, 09/09 4PM - 9PM
- Halloween Trunk or Treat - Friday, 10/25 3PM - 8PM
- Thanksgiving Box Distribution - Sunday, 11/17 9AM - 3PM
- Kinship Holiday Party - Tuesday, 12/19 4PM - 9 PM
- Holiday Gift Distribution - Sunday, 12/22 9AM - 2PM
**Times may vary
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