A safe home. A loving environment. Nurturing caregivers. To a foster child, it’s a wish. A dream. You see, our children have seen life through the lens of hopelessness. Abuse. Trauma.
Being in a loving foster care home offers our children the chance to know protection, compassion, hope. The chance to experience the joy of simply being a child. And to build bigger dreams than they ever imagined.
To draw attention to issues surrounding foster care in metro Detroit, as well as to celebrate the families who take on this awesome responsibility, The Children’s Center (TCC) will observe National Foster Care Awareness Month in May.
TCC will kick off the campaign on Monday, May 11, at 5:30 p.m. in partnership with Slow Roll Detroit. After formal remarks by TCC leadership, approximately 4,000 bike riders will launch from Woodward Avenue and West Alexandrine Street (one block from TCC’s Midtown campus headquarters, in front of Great Lakes Coffee). At the same time, hundreds of volunteers will drape Midtown in blue ribbons, the official symbol of Foster Care Awareness Month. Lampposts, storefronts, trees and volunteers will proudly display blue ribbons up and down Woodward, stretching from Ferry Street through Grand Circus Park. The general public is encouraged to join in this community-wide demonstration of support for foster care. For information about how to participate, see The Children’s Center website, www.thechildrenscenter.com, under “Upcoming Events.”
“Foster parents literally change a child’s life,” said Debora Matthews, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Children’s Center. “Unfortunately, there are more children in need of foster care than there are available homes. At The Children’s Center, we are working to change that using many strategies, including making the licensing process easier to understand and more user-friendly. We have a terrific staff of experts who can help interested parties learn more about becoming foster caregivers.”
In Michigan, approximately 13,000 children are placed in foster care annually. The Children’s Center provides foster care services for approximately 200 children on any given day. The only agency in Michigan whose child welfare staff is fully trained in Traumatic Stress, TCC offers an array of programs to help stabilize families and return children to their homes. They also provide Adoption and Respite Care services, as well as Independent Living for teens who have aged out of the foster care system. TCC is unique in offering a one-stop-shopping approach to mental, physical, behavioral and developmental services at a single location on its Midtown campus.
Founded almost 85 years ago, TCC provides an integrated care approach to treating the behavioral health, physical health and educational needs of each individual child. Services include psychiatric/psychological counseling, developmental disabilities programs, early childhood education and afterschool programs, foster care and adoption services, infant mental health, family counseling, and crisis care services.
For more information about Foster Care services through The Children’s Center, visit www.thechildrenscenter.com, email Shereen Allen-Youngblood at syoungblood@thechildrenscenter.com, or call (313) 262-1119.
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