June is National Reunification Month! Celebrated in June each year, National Reunification Month recognizes the people and efforts around the country that help families to stay together. We want to recognize the vital role that you, as a foster parent, play in helping to reunify, strengthen and support families. The best work is done by kinship and foster parents who also support the birth parents in achieving reunification with their child and helped a family get back on track. Let’s celebrate the accomplishments of families who have overcome an array of changes to reunify safely and successfully.
"We Believe in the Resiliency and Strength of Families!"
- A Month-Long Celebration of Reunification & Families 2023
June is National Reunification Month, a month-long celebration of the year-round work, commitment, and investment of time and resources by parents, family members, child welfare professionals, foster parents, service providers, attorneys, courts, and the community to reunify children with their families and provide them with a solid foundation for personal growth, development and maturity.
This month, we are observing National Reunification Month. There is a three-fold purpose to this important month:
Foster care is supposed to be a temporary situation, and the primary goal for children is to be reunified with their biological family. Yet, it is not always clear the exact path to that result, and reunification is a process. There is a lot of work from all parties leading up to the event when the Judge rules that way. Although reunification days are a joyous occasion, the path to reunification takes work, commitment, and investment of time and resources not only by the parents but also by family members, social workers, foster parents, service providers, attorneys, CASAs, courts, and the community. It truly takes a village to bring families back together.
June 7, 2023, 1:30-2:45 PM
The relationship between resource/foster caregivers and parents whose children are in foster care can be one of the most impactful connections to supporting reunification. Resource caregivers play a critical role in supporting family time and maintaining children’s connections to family. What is the role of Child Welfare agencies in supporting this connection? Please join us as we explore this role and offer concrete ways Child Welfare agencies can be a partner in supporting reunification through this relationship and other practices.
Oregon Department of Human Services and Georgia Department of Human Services will offer tips not only from the agency’s perspective but also from the perspective of parents and resource caregivers in partnership with Rise, a parent-led NYC-based advocacy organization. Participants will hear personal perspectives from parents who have been impacted by the child welfare system and will leave with practical tips for how agencies can support families in achieving reunification from the moment a child is placed into care.
Cuyahoga County's Just in Time Training is a web based service program designed to connect foster parents, kinship or other caregivers with training, peer experts and other resources. Questions are answered and practical solutions to care for children are discussed - all from the comfort of your home or office.
If you have difficulty accessing any material on this site, please contact us in writing and we will work with you to make the information available. You can direct your request to JITSupport@USF.edu.