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| Hello, Caregiver Community, It’s our official first day at Alliance CaRES! We’re very excited to jump in and start moving forward to get you the support and services you need. As the organization selected to lead Caregiver Retention, Education and Support (CaRES) in partnership with DCYF, we will be offering resources, guidance and collaboration to each of you at all points of your journey as a caregiver. While you are doing the important work of supporting children and families across Washington, we are here to support YOU! We have been building the infrastructure of our new program since we signed the agreement with DCYF in mid-December. While we have made tons of progress, we’re also still very much in “construction mode.” We greatly appreciate your patience and grace as we staff up, build out and assess needs. We’re finding that one of our guiding quotes, “Difficult roads lead to beautiful destinations,” applies not just to foster parenting! This is very much a partnership and we want to hear from you about what you’re looking for. If you have thoughts or ideas, please fill out our survey here! At least initially, while COVID requires that all our support groups are virtual, they will be organized in a way that’s a little different from what you might be used to. – Our overarching structure will be organized to serve you by your stage/role in the caregiver journey: prospective foster parent, newly licensed foster parent, veteran foster parent, or kinship caregiver. This lets us target our resources and supports to your specific needs. – Support groups will be organized by topic rather than by region. This will give you the chance to hear from people managing situations similar to what you might be working through, and to learn from experts on those subjects. Support groups will be a facilitated group discussion that focuses on identifying barriers and solving problems. We heard you loud and clear so support groups will provide training hours. – Our Facebook pages will be organized to match our overall structure, so you will see groups focused on sharing content that you will find valuable to the work you’re doing every day. You can follow our main page here, and join our Groups for Prospective Foster Parents, Newly Licensed Foster Parents, Veteran Foster Parents and Kinship Caregivers. More support is coming as we build up the program. We’re planning to create a mentorship program with an opportunity for respite. Stay tuned! We look forward to meeting and working with each of you, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you have a question, need a resource or just want a little help with a problem. You can find us online at alliancecarescommunity.org or email us at [email protected]. We can’t wait to meet you!Alliance CaRES Team |
| Alliance CaRES | alliancecarescommunity.org |