Placing infants and toddlers in loving, stable and committed foster homes throughout Santa Barbara County

April 2015 Newsletter

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. What a perfect time to think about how we can support our local babies in need of safe, loving homes. This time of year we are gearing up for our annual fundraiser in Santa Barbara and asking for your support of our unique program that rescues abused, abandoned and neglected babies and toddlers. Angels families step forward to embrace them as they heal, support them as they learn to trust, and love them as they develop healthy bonding and attachment behaviors.

Al Fresco Please join us at the 4th annual Al Fresco Afternoon on the Riviera fundraising event benefiting Angels Foster Care. This special event is held at the Four Seasons Biltmore Santa Barbara in the gardens. It is so relaxing to spend time in this stunning setting and visit with your friends. Get to know some of our Angels moms who are ambassadors for Angels Foster Care and beautiful, living examples of pure devotion to this work. Mark your calendars for Friday, May 1. Shop the Marketplace, browse the raffle, and sip lemonade at 11 am. At noon a delicious entrée trio of salads, handmade breads, including my favorite, olive bread, and a buffet of desserts will tempt you.

Saks will dazzle us with a fashion show of all the latest spring colors and trends.

Raffle prizes from Saks Fifth Avenue, Coast 2 Coast, Pretty Fetes, Fanciful Designs, Recipes Organic Bakery, and UGG Australia will be awarded to the lucky and the guest favors are a wonderful surprise for all our guests to take home as a reminder of this special afternoon. All proceeds from Al Fresco go to Angels to help us find, screen and train Angels families and support our babies in their homes until reunification or adoption occurs. Thank you to our generous sponsors: Montecito Bank and Trust, Becker Studios, OSI Hardware, Little One Foundation, UGG Australia, Coast 2 Coast Collection, Saks Fifth Avenue, Four Seasons Biltmore Resort, Kathleen Cooper Fine Papers, Pretty Fetes, Fanciful Designs, Kelsey Crews Photography and Santa Ynez Vacation Rentals.

Saks Fifth Avenue is hosting a special evening of shopping to benefit Angels Foster Care and help you find the perfect outfit for our Al Fresco on the Riviera luncheon or anything you need to "spring" into spring. Thursday, April 16 join us at Saks Fifth Avenue at 1001 State Street from 5-7 pm. Drinks, hors d'oeuvres and desserts will be passed as you shop. All are invited!

- Meichelle Arntz

Executive Director

WELCOME KELLY!

Kelly White O'Neill has joined the Angels staff as our new Development Associate for North County. She brings enormous enthusiasm and experience to the job and will help us raise awareness in North County, engage more families to be part of the Angels Foster Care community, and will help secure more funding and donors from North County. After she and her husband fostered their son Tommy, through Angels, and eventually adopted him in December, 2013, supporting the cause of young children in the foster care system has been a goal of Kelly's. She is thrilled to be using her extensive experience and expertise in non-profit management and development to help this wonderful organization increase our efforts to serve more babies and children through foster care.

Formerly, Kelly was the executive director of the Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum and worked as the Executive Director of the Santa Maria Valley Humane Society. She received her B.A. from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and has a masters degree from USC in Museum Studies-with an emphasis in Museum Education and she previously worked in Los Angeles at the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Armand Hammer Museum and Cultural Center, in both of their Education Departments. She is a graduate of St. Joseph High School in Santa Maria and returned to Santa Maria about 14 years ago where she has been supporting non-profits in Santa Maria including the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County. Because of this extensive experience, she has a wealth of community resources upon which to draw in an effort to serve and support the Angels mission.

Kelly is active in her community, and has been a member of the Santa Maria Noontime Kiwanis and is a longstanding member of the American Association of University Women where she is a past president of the Santa Maria Branch. Kelly currently volunteers with the Community Development Block Grant Commission for the City of Santa Maria and is a volunteer interviewer for the Santa Barbara Scholarship Foundation. Kelly enjoys cooking, traveling and is an avid backyard gardener. She is happily married to Jim O'Neill, a local attorney, and they make their home with their 4-year-old son Tommy, and their 4-legged children in Santa Maria.

Please contact Kelly if you have ideas to share about how to increase awareness in North County by calling her in the Orcutt office at 937-8500 or via email at kelly@angelssb.com.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Congratulations to staff member Stacy, husband Jon and big brother Jaxon on the birth of baby Emilia on April 6! Everyone is doing wonderfully!

Newly Certified Families - welcome back to Chrystal and Kevin of South Santa Barbara County, who re-certified this week.

New Placements: thank you to Deb and Kris of North Santa Barbara County for accepting placement of a baby girl.

Recent Adoptions: Congratulations to Jennifer & Adam, and big sister Caylee of South Santa Barbara County for their adoption of Emma!

Thank you to our amazing foster families for opening their homes to Angels children!

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Multiple research studies have shown that families that possess certain protective factors have a much lower risk for child abuse and neglect. The key factors within a family framework that help children and youth develop to their best potential are:

Nurturing and attachment
Knowledge of parenting and of child and youth development
Parental resilience
Social connections
Concrete supports for parents
Social and emotional developmental well-being

Please help promote healthy families in our community by reaching out to others who may be struggling and lend your assistance or guidance.

If you have any words of inspiration or encouragement, please send them to us for inclusion in a future Angels newsletter!

FOSTER PARENTS OF THE MONTH

Nick and Cami

from North Santa Barbara County

Angels is very appreciative of the time you have spent working as foster parents, and the love and support you have given your Angels child!

WHAT'S COMING UP

Angels Shopping Day at Saks Fifth Avenue

Thursday, April 16, 5 - 7 pm

1001 State Street, Santa Barbara

Bring your friends and family and join us for a fun evening of shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue. Sip champagne, sample hors d'oeuvres and desserts and view the new spring trends! A portion of the proceeds from all sales on April 16 & April 17 will be donated to Angels Foster Care.

6th Annual Family Kite Festival - FREE

Sunday, April 19, 12 - 4 pm

Rotary Centennial Park, Santa Maria

Bring the family and your kites to enjoy a beautiful day in the Santa Maria breeze. Say hello to Jennifer and Kelly who will have a booth at the festival to promote Angels Foster Care and to recruit potential foster families.

4th Annual Al Fresco Afternoon on the Riviera

Friday, May 1, 11 am - 2 pm

Four Seasons Biltmore, Santa Barbara

Please join us for our European-inspired luncheon, marketplace, fashion show and Angels presentation, all set in the beautiful gardens of the Biltmore. The event, in honor of National Foster Care Month, is a benefit for Angels Foster Care. Tickets are $150 per person. Invitations have been mailed, and registration is available on the Angels web site. If you are an Angels parent who would like to attend, mention that you would like to be seated with other foster parents and we will group you at a table. Questions? Call Ellen in the Angels office at 884-0012.

Angels Foster Parent Pre-Certification Training

Thursdays, May 7, 14, 21 & 28 (5:30 - 8:30 pm)

Tuesday, May 19 (5:30 - 8:30 pm)

Location to be announced.

Note that pre-screening and certain paperwork are required before prospective foster parents may enroll in parent training classes. Please contact Social Worker Jennifer Mills at Jennifer@angelssb.com as soon as you are ready to begin the process.

SAVE THE DATE!

Angels Family Summer BBQ

Saturday, July 18 at Tucker's Grove Park in Goleta.

EXCITING OPPORTUNITY!

In honor of National Foster Care Awareness Month coming up in May, Regal Cinemas in Santa Maria is joining with Angels Foster Care to screen the powerful

sequel "ReMoved Part 2" which is a follow up

to the remarkable short film, "ReMoved." This film continues the dramatic journey of a 9 year old girl as she experiences the foster care system. Dates and times of this amazing opportunity to spread awareness about foster care are coming. We hope you can join us to see this wonderful film at the gorgeous, new Regal Cinemas in Santa Maria!

HOW TO SUPPORT ANGELS

Contribute to our 2105 Endowment Campaign

Support Angels far into the future and provide financial stability to the agency as the fund grows and pays out profits annually to support Angels' work. Our goal this year is to bring in $50,000 to qualify us for matching funds. Make a personal contribution, have your business donate a portion of sales or host a small gathering to secure further contributions. Contact Executive Director Meichelle Arntz to get started!

Sign up for Amazon Smile to benefit Angels

AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support Angels Foster Care every time you shop, at no cost to you. When you shop at smile.amazon.com, you'll find the exact same prices, selection and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate .5% of the purchase price to Angels. All you need to do is visit http://smile.amazon.com on your computer or mobile device and select Angels as your designee. Register now and your future Amazon purchases will benefit Angels!

BULLETIN BOARD

Angels Continuing Education Reminder

All currently certified Foster Parents have been issued new credits online for 2015! Please log in to your FosterParentCollege.com account to access your credits. 10 hours of online education must be completed annually for all Foster Parents certified through Angels.

Angels Library

We have many useful books on parenting in our South County office library. Please stop by to browse our resources or contact your social worker if you would like us to select a book for you on a specific topic.

Out & About in the Community

We're available to speak throughout Santa Barbara County about Angels Foster Care and the urgent need for foster homes. If you know of a local club, group, church or synagogue that would like an Angels presentation, please contact Ellen.