Many years ago, we had a wonderful discussion in one of the groups of Updated Parenting Skills Training about how to begin connecting with a new foster child or youth recently placed in your foster home. There were many ideas from that group, both men and women, several with years of experience fostering. Individually and collectively they saw the value in sharing time together, shopping together, cooking together, taking a walk or bike riding together, enjoying music together—with dancing!, playing UNO or Yahtzee, visiting a zoo or enjoying ice cream cones together, making homemade ice cream or freshly-squeezed lemonade together, or even reading together…all wonderful activities for many age levels. This conversation promoted further exploring things to do—go fishing on a sunny day, visit the local library and sign up for a library card, make cookies to share with an elderly neighbor, clean up a yard together for a busy parent with many active children, sit in the wading pool together with broad-brimmed hats, sunscreen, glasses of iced tea, and watch the puffy clouds float by…play with toy trucks and cars in the sandbox while forming roads
circling hills and mountains of sand, with random sticks standing in the sand like trees, singing favorite songs together with guitar – if available. Reading stories about children and families from other lands, about children who look like the child in our care or about adults who look like the caregiver, or about other children and youth in foster care. This conversation went directly to the heart of the discussion—“where do you begin?” The answer was clear and steady, provided with confidence and from much experience…”you begin where the child is”.
We know our kids have experienced trauma—all kinds, at different intervals and durations, often leaving damage on their precious hearts and minds. Trauma often slows development, or stops child development altogether. So here we have a 6 year old living in our foster home, but the 6 year old has social, emotional, and mental abilities of a 2 year old…that’s where we begin our work to connect, engaging in play that is appropriate for a 2 year old. Anything more would be confusing, perhaps intimidating, or even overwhelming. Anything older than 2 is beyond what this 6 year old is
able to understand, as they need to feel a strong sense of safety and comfort while participating in activities to connect, build trust, and begin to value others, seeing that caregiver as a safe haven or secure base. That’s exactly where to begin… blowing bubbles, kicking a ball, bouncing a ball, looking for wildflowers in the tall grass, wading barefoot in the puddles, rolling down a hillside while lying on the ground, squealing and laughing all the way down to the base of the hill.
Play is the important work of childhood and adulthood, although adults often forget…Play is when we compare, experiment, explore, replicate, interact with others, address conflicts or make plans with others, dream, imagine, study, focus, enjoy, become puzzled or impatient, figure out Plan B, share with others, follow, lead, consider options, expand or contract, experience investing time and money, When adults join in play with children in their care, magic will fill the air—adults do not enter to dictate and tell everyone what to do. Adults enter to be on equal footing with every child, as the child is now on equal footing with the adult. And now we are all part of this important work called “play”. It’s during this precious time we get to know each other through the use of empathy and true listening. We also have the
opportunity to model positive social and emotional skills to negotiate solutions around “big feelings”.. We cannot build relationship without spending time together, and the stronger the relationship becomes, the more effective we become as their caregivers, promoting healing in these children and youth from deep, dark places. Day by day, moment by moment, with the best supports in place for each child, we discover their healing and growth, demonstrated in the things they are learning, becoming better equipped to manage those “big feelings”, to work through different opinions, and to trust the important adults in their life…the truly compassionate Adoptive Parents and Foster Caregivers of CYFS have been doing this for years. We only desire to do a better job with each family we serve, promoting healing, growth, confidence, and strength in each member. We as an agency are so fortunate to have so many empathetic, patient, determined foster homes helping the children in their care to heal and to dream, and to envision a future that includes each child and youth living a life of purpose and love. Many thanks to you, always and forever—you are helping to make a difference for good with a legacy built over many years, involving thousands of foster caregivers and adoptive parents, that “family matters”.
by Cassidy Williams, CQI Specialist.Positive Feedback from the Annual Foster Parent Survey (conducted March/September of each year)
CQI or Continuous Quality Improvement is a process of collecting, analyzing & using data to improve the quality of services or products on an ongoing basis. Put simply, CQI helps organizations “get better at getting better.”
The CQI Team has members represented at each department at the agency. CYFS is a continuous learning agency. The CQI Team at CYFS understands that CQI requires doing something different in order to bring about change. The “something different” can be a change to a process, quality, and/or the capacity to deliver services.
She is always prompt and great at responding to questions. She is supportive and has a listening ear.
She is very helpful and always gets back to me with in 24 hrs if not the same day.
She is always fast and efficient with addressing my issues. She is supportive and if she doesn’t know the answer she finds it most of the time same day.
Coming out to my home explaining everything to me to get a better understanding was great.
Have a question or comment for CQI, please email cwilliams@cyfsolutations.org
The more than 391,000 American children and youth living in foster care deserve to grow up in safe and loving homes devoted to their health, happiness, and advancement. This month, we honor the absolute courage of young people in foster care, who too often endure challenges that no child should ever have to confront, and we give thanks to the dedicated kinship and foster parents who care for them during their times of greatest need. We recognize the biological parents and families of foster children who work hard to overcome difficult circumstances so they can safely reunite with their children. We also rededicate ourselves to supporting the volunteers and professionals who help America’s foster youth find temporary and permanent homes.
Despite the selflessness and service of loving foster parents across the country, children in foster care often face an uphill battle in achieving their full potential. Many carry lasting physical and emotional scars from trauma they experienced at a young age, which can increase their risk of mental health issues or lead to substance use disorders. These challenges are magnified for children of color, who are disproportionately represented in the child welfare system: 1 in 9 Black children and 1 in 7 Native American children spend part of their childhood in foster care. Meanwhile, recent estimates suggest 30 percent of youth in foster care identify as LGBTQI+.
To fulfill our Nation’s responsibility to our children, we need to prevent the conditions that lead to kids entering foster care in the first place. My Administration has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in community-based child abuse and neglect prevention programs, and we are requesting an increase from the Congress for these programs. We are also proposing a $5 billion expansion of evidence-based foster care prevention services to allow more children to remain safely in their own homes with their own families. Because poverty can trigger interventions that unnecessarily remove children from their families, we are fighting to restore the expanded Child Tax Credit, which in 2021 helped slash child poverty to its lowest rate ever. And as a dangerous wave of cynical State investigations targets families with transgender children, we will keep working to stop politicians from weaponizing child protective services against loving families who simply want to support their kids and help them to be their authentic selves.
For children and youth already in the foster care system, we must continue finding them loving temporary homes and, ultimately, safe and supportive permanent homes. My Administration is working to help States place more children with relatives and other trusted adults instead of in group homes. We are seeking to make it easier for biological parents to safely reunite with their children by providing these families with legal representation to help them navigate the complex child welfare system.
To make adoption and legal guardianship more manageable for families who could otherwise create safe and supportive homes, I have called for the adoption tax credit to be made fully refundable and proposed extending it to legal guardians — including grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other relatives. This would provide more breathing room to the kinship caregivers currently raising nearly one-third of all children in the foster care system, and it would also help reduce racial inequities in our country’s child welfare system.
To further increase the number of loving families who can take in foster children, I issued an Executive Order removing barriers and combating biases that make it harder for LGBTQI+ families to foster and adopt. At the same time, we are working with State child welfare agencies to make sure LGBTQI+ youth are placed in supportive environments that see and value them for who they are.
Since coming to office, my Administration has worked hand-in-hand with States to help youth aging out of the foster care system to stay in school, participate in job training programs, pay their bills, and transition to adulthood. I have also expanded the Military Parental Leave Program, which enables service members to spend needed time with their families following a child’s birth, adoption, or placement in long-term foster care. My latest Budget calls for $9 billion to provide housing vouchers to all 20,000 youth exiting foster care annually — a key step in helping them secure stable housing during this difficult transition. I have also called for an additional $1 billion to help youth aging out of foster care find a job, enroll in and afford higher education, obtain basic necessities, and access preventative health care.
One of my great privileges during my career in public service has been meeting some of the remarkable
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young people in foster care and their foster parents. I have seen what good foster care can do. Despite the challenges that no young person should ever have to face, loving foster families can help children become independent, confident, successful members of society and can be a critical resource to children and families in times of need. Ensuring that children who are separated from their families are placed in loving and supportive environments, while ensuring that as many families as possible have the resources they need to remain safely together, is a moral duty we all share and an investment in America’s future that will pay dividends for generations to come.
This National Foster Care Month, we express our gratitude to every loving foster parent in America, and we acknowledge every young person navigating the child welfare system, unsure of what the future might hold. You can succeed, and my Administration will do all it can to provide you with the tools and resources you need and the secure, respectable upbringing you deserve to create a meaningful life.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue
of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 2023 as National Foster Care Month. I call upon all Americans to observe this month by reaching out in their neighborhoods and communities to the children and youth in foster care and their families, to those at risk of entering foster care, and to kin families and other caregivers.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-seventh.
JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.This proclamation is in honor of the service you provide as foster caregivers and adoptive parents, helping children and youth heal daily, providing encouragement and nurturing care in abundance, helping these young people to arrive at adulthood in the strongest, healthiest, and most compassionate way possible. Many, many thanks to each and every one of you!
All CYFS programs are committed to helping children, adults, and families heal from life-changing trauma, abuse and neglect, and other significant life challenges. We approach our work using 4 important pillars that are interconnected and this is what makes our service delivery so unique. These 4 pillars align with our agency mission and values and are evident in how we serve individuals and families, how we find solutions, and how we interact with one another.
We share an understanding that the family system is central to a person’s development, identity, and relationships and therefore is always considered and integrated in our work.
We recognize that often behaviors and symptoms can be the result of traumatic experiences and we promote environments of healing and recovery by infusing and sustaining trauma awareness and knowledge into our agency culture, practice, and policies.
The Center for Youth and Family Solutions engages and serves children and families in need with dignity, compassion, and respect by building upon individual and community strengths to resolve life challenges together.
We embrace and value the distinctive skills, experiences, and perspectives of everyone; working actively to remove systemic barriers, challenge inequities and ensure equal access to resources and opportunities; and we thrive when everyone’s voice is heard and their contributions are valued.
We affirm that every person has inherent worth — identifying and building upon strengths to build resilience and empower people to be their best — both with our clients and with each other.
Over the last few months, we have introduced staff to F.I.T.S. (Family Systems, Inclusivity, Trauma-Responsive, and Strength-Based). The idea here is we approach our work using these 4 pillars that are interconnected and what makes our service delivery so unique.
You may not have known, but there are multiple FITS committees within our agency. Each committee has a specific FITS related goal, and they are committed to making FITS influenced changes throughout the agency. Here’s our hardworking committees + some things they’ve been working on:
FITS Training Committee : The Training Committee has been working to schedule + prepare for the upcoming supervisor’s Family Systems Training. Our Chief Operations Officer, Tony Riordan, will be facilitating this training on May 4th, 2023! This is the
start to our many, “FITS – Living the Mission” series trainings! We are so excited to get the ball rolling and have more + more FITS trainings for all our staff!
FITS Environment Committee: The Environment Committee has started a Kindness Campaign. This was influenced by FITS, especially the strength’s-based pillar! When you complete acts of kindness, you are being strength’s-based! You are also being strength’sbased when you’re calling out your peer’s acts of kindness! This committee is also working to make our office lobbies more warm, welcoming + comforting! Additionally, the committee is working to get more FITS information hung up in our lobbies so everyone who walks in + out of our building knows about our pillars of practice.
FITS Intake Assessment + Services Committee: The Intake Assessment + Services Committee has been
reviewing intake forms from all the programs within CYFS. The committee has been making FITS influenced recommendations for said forms. The committee has been making sure that all forms that are reviewed with clients or used for client referrals are inclusive, trauma responsive, strength’s based + include questions about the client’s family system.
FITS Consumer + Community Committee: The Consumer + Community Committee has been working to get FITS related information out to both consumers + the community. They are doing so by putting together information to put in the donor newsletter + the foster parent and adoptive parent newsletter. Additionally, the committee is working on putting together a FITS insert for program brochures. This way, anytime someone gives or receives one of our brochures, they receive some education on our pillars of practice!
FITS Equity, Diversity + Inclusion Committee: The Equity, Diversity + Inclusion Committee is currently working on recruiting members! The mission of the EDI Council is to nurture an environment which attracts and retains the best talent, values the diversity of life experiences and perspectives, and encourages everyone to pursue the CYFS mission. If you share in the vision of an equitable world and a community which supports and encourages all people--staff and clients--to live
fully and reach their unique potential, then please consider joining the EDI Council as we continue our work to realize this vision at CYFS.
FITS Workforce Development Committee: The Workforce Development Committee’s mission is to promote, implement, and sustain CYFS missiondriven initiatives that increase employee recruitment, retention, satisfaction, engagement, and professional development. Currently, this committee is focused on recruitment + retention. The committee is working hard to get individuals familiar with FITS from the moment they show interest in working at the agency!
You may have heard in News You Can Use that Rock Island had an appreciation board for National Social Work Awareness Month. Staff comments were collected from foster parents, supervisors, and peers. Read some of those comments below! They will be shared next week as well!
Kathie McAdams has been a blessing from God to our family. As she is also a foster parent and adoption parent we have been able to get her advice on several issues throughout the process of fostering, adopting, and just parenting our children. Thank you Kathy!
Aimee Brewer has been so helpful. Always willing to answer any questions to help us do things correctly.
Rebecca Schaechter is just an all around awesome person. She has such a positive attitude even though I know her job can be heartbreaking. Rebecca has been a huge help to our family.
Christina Wentz has a beautiful heart. Such a nice person. You can tell she really cares and goes the extra mile to help.
My family has been working with Tracy White over the last 6 months. She has helped us in so many ways. Tracy has done a wonderful job. I love the fact that she is right on top of things. She has been caring and easy to work with. The family hopes she has a great day, week, month, and year.
A special person I would like to mention, Jasmine Guy. Ever since she started helping us she has made it easy to understand, communicate and feel heard. She’s one of those people that I wish everyone could meet.
Mindy Harris. She has been with us since day one and has always had a way to make you feel comfortable and also heard. Even when times got tough both she and Jasmine haven’t quit on us. Both of them in my eyes deserve a raise and reward for such amazing job they are doing! They’re truly appreciated to be apart of this journey with us. I will be forever grateful to have them during this time and to have met them.
**If you would like to share a FITS influenced story about an employee, a group of employees, colleague, specific site or peer, please email me directly Thank you!**
As I sit at my desk and look out at my lilac bush with tiny green buds at the ends of the branches and the birds flying around the bird feeders. I can’t help but get a tinge of excitement and a sense of relief with the knowledge that warmer days are about to come.
Spring has that effect on me and so many others, but why?
Is it the promise of a transition from the winter gloom to days full of sun and flowers bringing us hope and joy? Spring (as a noun) is defined as the season after winter and before summer in which vegetation begins to appear. It is a season of growth and development.
We must remember one aspect of spring and that is we cannot get to it unless we go through winter.
Winter is characterized as the harshest season. A time of snowstorms, bitter coldness, and extended darkness. Winter is at times brutal and can be a difficult challenge to get through.
Spring is the light at the end of our winter tunnel. A lifeline that we can hold on to. Flowers budding, grass growing, birds chirping about…..it breathes new life
into us.
I wonder though, would spring be so sweet if we did not go through the harshness of winter?
Recently I have been going through a winter season in my life. A season where I often find myself asking “What is the purpose of this?”, “Why me?”, and “Will I ever get through this?”. But as I sit here gazing upon the beauty of spring, I realize that what I need to focus on is exactly what I see Mother Nature doing right now. We all have gone through the struggle (even soulcrushing experiences) of the winter months only to be brought into the growth and beauty of spring on the other side.
I believe there is a purpose for everything, even going through the challenging seasons of life. Because once we have gone through them, we are provided with a newfound appreciation for the peace that is to follow!
So, as we pass through seasons of struggle, we can watch the spring season unfold before us and let it remind us that no matter what we were struggling or being challenged with, we will eventually arrive at a season full of renewal, beauty, and reward.
Just got home from school, and the kids feel like they could eat 12 cookies. Instead, here’s a list of easy, and healthy snacks many kids can make for themselves and others:
1. Toast both halves of an English muffin, cover each half with a teaspoon of pizza sauce and some pepperoni slices.
2. Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella, place in warm toaster oven until cheese melts.
(Other options to add – olives, green pepper, diced tomatoes, mushrooms, onions.)
1. Celery sticks filled with peanut butter, raisins lined up on the peanut butter like “ants on a log”.
1. Wash 4 or 5 large strawberries, pour one small container strawberry yogurt into blender, add strawberries, add ½ cup of milk and 2 ice cubes.
2. Blend until smooth and enjoy.
1. Small bag of corn chips, add diced tomatoes, diced onions, diced green peppers, handful of shredded cheese, some diced black olives, 2 tbsp. chopped grilled chicken, 1 tbsp. sour cream, 1 tbsp. thousand island salad dressing.
2. Everything fits in the small bag of corn chips. Grab a fork and a napkin.
At the end of March, The Center for Youth and Family Services had the support of licensed traditional and specialized homes and relative homes, both licensed and unlicensed. Also, at the end of February 2023, we provided for the care of children and youth across counties.
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