SPAN - Reunification Celebrations

helping families bridge the gap between child welfare and community

S-P-A-N@live.com

509.228.3242

Dear Please help us with Spokane’s 2013 Reunification Celebration. The Spokane Parent Advocacy Network (SPAN) is hosting this third annual event on Saturday, July 13 from 12:30 to 2:30 pm at the south shelter of Mission Park, 1208 E Mission Ave in Spokane. We plan to offer food, door prizes, t-shirts, certificates, and bus passes to 150 low-income parents, children and families. We are asking for your support through donations of money, goods and/or services.

“People Change ~ Families Reunite” is the overall message of this event. This is to honor parents who successfully reunited with their children, after being involved with a child dependency case, (i.e. CPS).

Everyone should know these parents stepped up to a serious life-changing challenge: they worked hard to confront personal issues (e.g. drugs, abuse, neglect) and learned to nurture children. After showing the court they are committed to being the best parents they can be, and ensuring the safety and wellbeing of their children, their cases were dismissed.

Everyone involved within the child dependency process is invited to attend this community celebration: birth parents, foster parents, relative caregivers, service providers, legal advisors, court staff, social work professionals, and most importantly the children! By demonstrating positive family reunification outcomes within our local community, the SPAN seeks to provide hope to other parents who struggle, and change the child welfare culture from one of fear and isolation, to one of connections and trust.

By supporting SPAN, you are investing in your local community and the future. SPAN is a unique and dynamic volunteer group, consisting of parents who are “veterans” of the child welfare system, as well as various local service providers, social workers, and legal professionals. Our members have dedicated thousands of hours while working on positive improvements to child welfare policies, practices, and programs. For more information about SPAN please visit facebook.com/Spokane.PAN, or wspan.org for our statewide organization.

SPAN is asking for donations such as food, supplies, family-friendly activity passes, gift certificates, services, or monetary funds. Donations are considered tax-deductible through our fiscal sponsor Community Minded Enterprises, a 501c3 nonprofit. A thank you letter can be provided upon request or you may use CME’s EIN number, 91-1764236. With your assistance parents, children, and families could make meaningful and lasting connections within our local community. Thank you in advance for your support of Spokane’s 2013 Reunification Celebration; it is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely, Corrie Andra & Jeremiah Donier, SPAN Parent Co-Facilitators PS. If you want your organization’s logo to be included in our future promotional materials, such as flyers, and t-shirts, please contact us by Friday, May 10.

July 14, 2013

Advocacy network works to reunite parents, kids in foster care Kaitlin Gillespie The Spokesman­Review Tags: Child Protective Services Department of Social and Health Services foster parents reunificiation Spokane Parent Advocacy Network

Single father Andrew Farris knew he’d have to fight his own monsters before he could be a dad again.

Farris will never forget the day he lost custody of his three children because of his drug addiction.

“She’s our miracle baby. We had her after we got clean,” said Corrie Andra, right, as she and Joshua Vone walk with their daughter, 19­month­old Chelsy Vone, at Mission Park in Spokane on Saturday. They were on hand for a family reunification picnic.

To learn more For more information about the Spokane Parent Advocacy Network, email S­P­A­N@live.com (https://mail.google.com/mail/? view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&to=S­P­A­

On Feb. 11, 2011, at about 7:30 p.m., he answered the phone. It was Child Protective Services, telling him they were coming to pick up his children.

“My drug addiction was completely overtaking everything,” Farris said.

It took six months of drug treatment before Tristin, 9, Terrance, 8 and Trinity, 3, could come home.

“How do you describe that?” Farris said. “It was a moment of crazy accomplishment.”

N@live.com) or visit a committee

meeting. The committee usually meets the third Thursday of every month at the Spokane Regional Health District, 1100 W. College Ave., in room 320 and 321 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

Now, Farris is one of several local parents using their story of hope to help other parents cope with losing custody of their children. The Spokane Parent Advocacy Network, launched in 2009, supports parents working to reunite with their children.

Help for parents SPAN offers several programs, including Parents for Parents, a program run by veterans of the CPS program to provide a support network for new parents. They also offer

On Saturday, SPAN hosted a picnic at Mission Park for families that have been reunited, some within the last several months, others for years. About 100 people gathered in the park, their children scampering across

Helping Other Parents Engage classes, a course about the CPS system.

the lawn, parents laughing and sharing their stories.

As of June 30, there were 796 children in foster or

relative care in Spokane County, according to the Department of Social and Health Services. Last year, 390 Spokane County children were reunited with their parents.

About 70 percent of Spokane parents with children in the foster system have problems with drug or alcohol abuse, founding SPAN member Ambrosia Eberhardt said. Others may have abused their children.

But parents can change, she said, and she’s an example of that.

Eberhardt didn’t know how to be a good parent when she had her children, she said. Her father was in a biker gang and her mother dead from a drug overdose, she said.

Eberhardt slipped into depression and drug use, unable to care for herself, let alone her children.

In 2000, her twins, Braydon and Brayana, were taken into foster care.

She was in counseling, took parenting classes and complied with her caseworker’s instructions, she said. In 2003, just before Christmas, a judge ruled her hard work had paid off and her kids were coming home.

“That was the best Christmas present ever,” she said. “Ever, ever, ever.”

In spite of the heartache, Eberhardt said she wouldn’t have changed a thing. Before her children entered the foster system, she was a drug addict who felt she had no future. Now, she’s an outreach specialist for parents with children in foster care for the Spokane County Superior Court. She has a bachelor’s degree in social work from Whitworth University.

“CPS saved my life,” she said.

On Saturday, Braydon, now 13, helped grill hamburgers for families in the park.

SPAN offers several programs, including Parents for Parents, a program run by veterans of the CPS program to provide a support network for new parents. They also offer Helping Other Parents Engage classes, a course about the CPS system.

For Rachel Baker, having a support network made all the difference in regaining guardianship of her children.

Baker, a recovering heroin addict, had her children taken from her after multiple arrests.

“I had no idea how to love them,” Baker said.

She’s gotten clean and has had 4­year­old Lillian and 6­year­old Haley back since 2009.

The Vancouver, Wash., native moved to Spokane to help kick her addiction. She has no family here, but the support network she built while fighting to get her kids back helped save her life.

“Don’t give up,” Baker said. “Reach out for help and support.”

Get more news and information at Spokesman.com

helping families bridge the gap between child welfare and community

S-P-A-N@live.com

509.228.3242 June 15, 2012

Reunification Celebration Saturday, June 23 - Noon to 2:30 pm Coeur d'Alene Park - Spokane Browne's Addition The Spokane Parent Advocacy Network is inviting you to come celebrate and honor parents involved with Child Protective Services reuniting with their children. Children, plus all caretakers are welcome: birth parents, relative caregivers and foster parents. Social service professionals and the press are invited too!

SPAN is offering free food for the first 120 people who RSVP. There will be some door prizes and fun stuff for the whole family. Parents are welcome to come share their reunification stories. Plus, certificates will be offered to parents who have successfully reunified with their children.

We hope you can join us as we celebrate reunifications in Spokane. If you know of a parent who should be honored, but cannot attend, please contact us.

The purposes of this Reunification Celebration are to:  Recognize that the safety, well-being, and future of children is a parent's primary concern  Celebrate the dedication it takes for birth parents to regain custody of their children  Acknowledge the many people who support and guide families along the way  Give hope to parents who are currently involved with the child welfare system  Inform the community that people do change, and families can reunite Statistics between 2007 and 2010 show that 13,189 children in Washington State reunified with their parents, as compared to 5,392 adopted children. In other words, reunifications comprise nearly two-and-half times the number of adoptions during the same period. In 2007, the American Bar Association in Washington, DC started National Reunification Celebrations in an effort to recognize the thousands of parents who reunify. In 2010, Washington State joined seven other states, when Governor Gregoire issued an official proclamation. Now in 2012, over 18 states are celebrating family reunifications.

"The public may not be aware that an important goal in public child welfare is to return children to their home and family when we can do so safely," said DSHS Children's Administration Assistant Secretary Denise Revels Robinson. "I respect and admire these parents for showing great perseverance and strength in working to reunite their families. Any day a child can safely return to home and family is a day to celebrate."

In Washington State many groups are celebrating reunifications which are supported by the DSHS Children’s Administration, the Office of Public Defense, Catalyst for Kids, and other family support groups. In Spokane, the SPAN worked with Juvenile Court, the Department of Children & Family Services, the Parent-Child Assistant Program, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Family Outreach Center, Our Kids Our Business and many more community partners to celebrate these parents, children, and families.

The SPAN is comprised of a unique and dynamic group of parents and professionals. Together we are inspiring parents and strengthening social service programs. We offer free Child Dependency classes and parent mentoring. If you would like to learn more about this network, founded and administered by volunteer birth parents, then please contact us at 509-228-3242 or S-P-A-N@live.com. Thank you for helping us remember that: “People Change, Families Reunite."

Sincerely, Jeremiah Donier, Communications Officer