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A
Family for Every Child August
2010 |
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Matching
Assistance Program
Dear
Families,
I
am excited to tell you about our new Matching
Assistance Program (MAP).
All
of us at AFFEC work with several hundred
families and we are happy to do
what we can for you, but know that our
time is limited each week. To help with this
need, we developed the Matching
Assistance Program. It is geared towards
families that are finding it hard to get
picked. Often for no apparent reason, and
lack a strong advocate.
This
program is available to families all over the
country.
Here
are a few of the ways we can help you:
1)
You will be assigned your
own Family Adoption Specialist that helps
you search for children and submit on kids
all over the country. They also will keep your
adoption worker in the loop regarding all
submissions.
2)
You get access to a "Private Listing" of kids
(3x as many kids that are on the public
website). Many kids can't be seen on the public
site but can be on a private log on listing
site.
It
allows you to submit to the child's
worker (sending your study and a link
to a family profile page, as well
as extra info you would like to share with
the child's worker!).
Create
a family profile page to help communicate the
strengths of your family and use images to tell
your story. Additional Video profile
options are also available.
Additional access
to in-depth information on adoption, new photo
listing sites, creating a life book,
services, trainings and more within the
site.
Receive
weekly email newsletters geared towards the MAP
program.
Receive
advanced email notices on "kids in urgent
need". We usually send these emails out
when a child is in urgent need and caseworkers
need to move quickly. The MAP families get
24-hour notice of these
situations.
There
are also many other advantages to the MAP
program, take a look at the Link
Let us
know what you think and if you have any
questions. We can/do offer a one-time log
on so you can look around before you
commit.
Christy
Obie-Barrett
A Family For Every
Child
Heart Gallery
Executive
Director
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Our
Vision
Our
vision is to erase the plight of America's
vulnerable and forgotten foster children and make
foster care truly temporary.
Integrity
is significantly valued by AFFEC. We pursue our
mission with honor, fairness and respect for every
individual. We uphold the values of AFFEC in every
action and decision. We are committed to act in
good faith, to comply with the rule of the law and
AFFEC policies and regulations.
As
our name reflects, our core value is that every
child truly deserves a loving home! We are
dedicated to a single purpose which is fueled by
our commitment to the children we
serve.
We
are here to assist families, caseworkers and
anyone who is involved with getting children out
of the foster care system. We hope to change the
foster care system in our country one step at a
time!
While
the challenges of adopting a child from foster
care are great, we are convinced that our team of
talented and committed Family Adoption Specialists
will be supportive, empathetic and pro-active
during this time.
We
are here to help answer any questions you may have
and support you throughout your journey. I am
confident that your perseverance will result in
bringing that long-awaited child to your
family.
Jennifer
Hancock
Matching Assistance Program Director
541-343-2856
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Matching Assistance Program Volunteers
Needed
These positions can be done from
anywhere and you don't need to be a
volunteer in our area. We will have you
work directly with our volunteer coordinator and
the Matching Assistance Director.
Child Outreach - Contacting and building
relationships with other photo listings to try
and link each other. Photo list their kids
and build partnerships to help recruit for
more kids.
Program Outreach - Send our flyers,
emails, materials to promote the Matching
Assistance Program. Link partner sites, share
our message about the Program with
other agencies, adoption workers, parent
groups and potential
parents.
Targeted Email Outreach for families of
specific children in urgent need of placement -
Several hours a week. Once you do an email,
there will be a few hours spent responding and
submitting on children for potential families.
Each email is approx. 1 hour to prepare and 2
hours to respond.
This is our most important
role, the more you do it the better and faster
you will get. It involves really understanding
and using our database. We get "urgent" requests
from caseworkers for placement on children (this
we see as an opportunity for us to get families
in front of
caseworkers).
We go into our database of over 5000
families, do a search on families that would be
a good fit for these children (2-parent, open to
older kids, a certain age group, race etc..),
then we send an email with the child's info and
ask if they would consider this child. Once
we submit their study on them we
then send their studies to the
caseworker. We often get 20+ families in 24
hours.
Research Volunteer - Researching
training, articles, support, state-by-state info
for our web, family support materials and
notebooks, newsletters
etc.
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Please Vote for
Us!
A
Family For Every Child has just joined a
national grant Competition to help us help more
children find forever families. We have
submitted a grant through the Pepsi Refresh
Project, and your votes determine the winners.
You
can vote at:
refresheverything.com/foreverfamilies and by
texting 101552 to 73774(pepsi) And you can vote
twice (once online and once by text) each day
all month long.
Anyone
13 and older can vote, so please help us spread
the word. Thanks
again! | |
Winter
Wonderland Gala Dinner &
Auction
Save
the date: November
10th
Place:
Valley River Inn
Time:
5:30pm social hour
$100
Per Person
$1,000
Per Table (10)
Event
Chairs:
Diana
Bray, Roxy Ragozzino, Melissa
Stock
Auctioneer:
Sid
Voorhees
Master
of Ceremonies:
Bill
Barrett
Sponsorship
Opportunities
Available
For
more information or to RSVP,
contact:
541-343-2856
info@afamilyforeverychild.org |
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Social Workers:
See How We Can Help You Match Your
Kids
At
the link below you will find a "Search" form
that you can fill out. We will then search our
database of over 5000 families for you. We ask
that you give us 3-4 business days to do so.
Once you have filled out the form (at the link
below) we will enter this information in our
database, pull up families that fit this
criteria and develop a targeted template and
email that will go out to as many as 500
families at a time. Images are very important,
so please do your best to supply one, it will
make a
difference.
Link to
Form
We
do our best to use the information you give us
to give "you" the families you think will be
successful for your child/children. Please be as
open as you can about area. If a child has to
move, a 2-hour move may be as dramatic as one
across the country. When open to a bigger area,
you are likely to get a more skilled, more
specific group for your
children. | |
How can you
contact A Family For Every
Child?
Call,
email, or visit us online or in
person!
 880
Beltline Rd.
Springfield Oregon
97477
office
- 541-343-2856
toll
free - 877-343-2856
fax
- 541-343-2866
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Please
remember AFFEC when you are disregarding old
computers, we'll take them!
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1.
Share your genuine feelings, written personally.
2.
Tell how would you love the child unconditionally.
3.
Don't make your profile too good to be true. Be
Yourself.
4. Tell stories. They move readers and are
the most natural way to communicate.
5. Have several
friends and relatives review the draft of your profile
and make suggestions.
6. When you write about your
life in areas such as around the house, holidays, work,
your passions, tell about the unique things that make
you who you are.
7. Your faith may be important, but
be brief when writing about it.
8. If you have a
passion, for example, about basketball, don't bring it
up in every paragraph.
9. Your profile and the
website where it's posted are the first images to be
seen to judge you as prospective parents. Make the best
first impression you can!
10. Have fun creating your
profile and it will show you are really happy about
adopting! :) |
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Adopting
from the Child Welfare system is a delicate
process. Learn how video family profiles can
assist you!
A
Family For Every Child is making available an
opportunity for families to present themselves through
the video medium both from the AFFEC website and
its Northwest Heart Gallery Family site. For more
information on family videos, please click the link
below.
Family
Videos |
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Upcoming
Sessions:
September
9th, 2010 - Speaker from DHS sharing about CANS
Assessment and Adoption
Subsidy
September
23rd, 2010 - Youth Panel sharing their stories - youth
from foster care, adopted youth, youth who have
aged-out
When:
2nd and 4th Thursdays of each
month
Time:
5:30-7:30pm
Where:
Boys and Girls Club of Emerald
Valley
1545 W 22nd Ave
Eugene, OR
97405
Activities
for Children available
Please
RSVP to: lisa@afamilyforeverychild.org
Click
below for a great webinar on adoption!
Check
out our resource page:
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AFFEC
Media
AFFEC is on Facebook, Myspace, and more. Click
on the links!
AFFEC Blog: Please contribute your
thoughts!
Our Mentor Program now has a discussion
group:
Perhaps you are addicted to Social Media.
Perhaps you would like to get involved. We could use
you!
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We
have some ideas of how we would like to use our social
media to do fundraising and need someone that has
experience or an interest to learn to help us.
If
you think this position may fit you, go for it!
Contact
AFFEC today! |
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Our
Partners:
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Donate
to AFFEC
Would you like to contribute to AFFEC's cause
for helping children? Any amount can have a lasting
impact on a child. Click
below:
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