The Community Attention Foster Families (CAFF) program out of Charlottesville’s Department of Human Services (DHS) has received the United Way Caring for Community Award- Above and Beyond Voice in Equity.
The 3rd annual Caring for Community Awards recognizes exceptional community service, support, and work by individuals and organizations over the past year. CAFF was nominated by a community member for the award and the community cast votes. The United Way of Greater Charlottesville announced the winners at the 31st annual Laurence E. Richardson Day of Caring and CAFF received the award Wednesday, September 21. The nomination read: “This staff is dedicated to ensuring that all children in the system are being fostered by well-trained families who will love and care for them despite backgrounds. CAFF is helping redefine what a family is. It’s wonderful to see and it’s inspiring!”
CAFF has shifted to being intentional and transparent in its recruitment and training efforts to ensure they are providing children and their families of origin with culturally and racially competent care from foster families and case managers. They provide a transracial fostering and adoption group that processes and works with families to determine how they can support children who do not share their same race and culture. They also address how parents can advocate for children when they encounter racism and discrimination. CAFF provides an annual mandatory Cultural Humility, Inclusivity and Competency training and a Supporting LGBTQ+ Youth in Foster Care training to foster families and partners.
Additionally, September is National Kinship Awareness Month and CAFF works closely with partners and kinship families to support kinship care for children experiencing foster care. 55% of children in the program are placed in kinship care with families that receive support for the life of the case. That number does not stay stagnant, and CAFF works with partners to identify families that could potentially be kinship providers for children in the program. They are constantly supporting the transition of children from resource families to family members willing to provide formal or informal kinship care. The CAFF team is flexible and creative when working to meet the needs of kinship families and the children they are caring for.
Original source can be found here.
