National Foster Care Recognition Week being observed from February 14-20
KINGSTON, Jamaica— The Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) will observe National Foster Care Recognition Week 2021 from February 14 to 20, under the theme ‘Every Child Needs a Family’.
The scheduled activities aim to heighten awareness about foster care, with special focus on promoting the recently launched ‘From Cribs to Arms’ Initiative.
These engagements, which are slated to be held across the CPFSA’s western, south east, southern, and north-east regions include church services, setting up of information corners, community walk-throughs, focus group sessions, promotional sessions, and a recognition ceremony for outstanding foster parents.
The highlight of the week will be the foster care recruitment competition among the CPFSA’s four regions.
Each region will be required to recruit a minimum to 15 new foster caregivers to be eligible. The region that has the most foster care applications during the period February 15 to March 31 will be declared the winner.
The objectives of this year’s foster care programme are the recruitment of at least 150 foster care applicants over six weeks and to increase awareness of the programme.
At the end of December 2020, the CPFSA had 522 males and 604 females in its foster care programme.
Chief Executive Officer of the CPFSA, Rosalee Gage-Grey, also noted that the agency’s Living in Family Environment (LIFE) programme aims to provide the necessary support for families so that children can remain with their parents, or be placed in enriching family environments when the home environment is not safe.
Foster care, one of the main elements of the LIFE programme, is a process that allows non-biological parents to care for children in State care and, in the process, provide them with a nurturing home environment, while positively contributing to their overall development.
“Acknowledging the importance of these arrangements, the CPFSA, since 2006, has annually observed the second week in February as National Foster Care Recognition Week.
Over the years, the week has been used to honour our foster parents, raise awareness about the programme, and intensify recruitment of new foster parents,” Gage-Grey said.
