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

June 2015 Newsletter

My father recently gave me a gift -- 1,934 little gifts to be exact. He scanned the slide photos of our childhood for my sisters and me and presented them to us on DVD. Most of these photos I had never seen before and they brought back a flood of memories and emotions.

Memories of tickle matches, reading books, holidays with family, snow days, making leaf forts, torturous music recitals, and of long hot summer days spent at the pool. Feelings of belonging, love, pure joy, anticipation, sadness, and contentment.

I know this task was not an easy one for my father; he had put it off for almost 30 years. The photos meant many things to him too. Loving memories can also be tinged with pain and loss. However, he threw himself into his project, despite the turmoil it caused him, because of what he felt we needed. I know this not because he told me (he is a man of few words; he sent the DVD in the mail), but from what he has shown me every day since I was a child.

Fathers, Angels' fathers, daily give these gifts of their hearts and of themselves to their children, those who will be part of their life forever and those whose time is limited. They give when it's not easy to. They love, guide, and take risks so that each child can experience and feel a father's love.

Thank you to our Fathers!

In gratitude,

Jennifer Mills, LCSW

Operations Director

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Newly Certified Families - welcome to Cynthia and Walter of Northern Santa Barbara County.

New Placements: Thank you to Julie and Robb of North Santa Barbara County for welcoming a little boy.

Recent Adoptions: none to report this month.

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

Seeking Advisors to Help with North County Outreach and Development

As Angels gets close to its 10 year anniversary and we soon celebrate the milestone of serving our 200th child in foster care, it's important that our agency develop all the resources it has to reach more foster families, raise more awareness, and serve as a leader in supporting at-risk children. With the hiring of Kelly White O'Neill as the first North County Development Associate, Angels is focusing on creating the same strong ties to community leaders, businesses, media, and potential supporters in Lompoc, Santa Maria and other areas of North County as we've been able to rely on in Santa Barbara. Our immediate goals are to find key advocates who can marshal their influence and resources on behalf of Angels Foster Care to help steer a North County Advisory group and to ultimately cultivate leaders who can serve on the Angels Board of Directors as well as find volunteers who can advise on and direct a North County Fundraiser or fundraising strategy.

We know that our current and former foster/adoptive families are our greatest cheerleaders but we also know you are very busy with your current responsibilities caring for young families. So, we'd really value any contacts or resources you can put us in touch with as well as any ideas you have for successful partnerships but don't expect much more from you than that. Perhaps you have friends, family members, co-workers, or other people in your life who might be interested in hearing how they can also support foster care and the Angels Foster Care mission? Or perhaps you work for a business or agency who might want to support our work to help babies in need? Any suggestions for people or groups we should reach out to for advice and leadership in developing our North County outreach are welcome anytime. Please contact Kelly White O'Neill in the Orcutt office at (805) 937-8500 or via email at kelly@angelssb.com and she will talk to you about ways Angels can continue reaching out.

FOSTER PARENTS OF THE MONTH

Kris and Debbie

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

"ReMoved: Remember My Story" Comes to YouTube

After many successful screenings of the "ReMoved" sequel around our county and even around the world, the filmmakers will make both short films available on YouTube and other online platforms by June 15. If you didn't have a chance to view any of the local screenings, take a moment and watch them from home. They have been extremely well-received by the Fostering community, and have been great educational tools for those learning more about how they can help, and understand children, in foster care.

Angels Foster Parent Pre-Certification Training

August dates to be announced...call for details.

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.

Santa Barbara Resource Family Association Monthly Meeting

Friday, July 10, 5:30-8:30pm

Santa Barbara Community Church Fellowship Hall
1002 Cieneguitas Rd. in Santa Barbara

Meetings take place the second Friday of every month and provide support and fellowship for current and adoptive resource (foster) parents. Childcare and dinner are provided free of charge. For more information contact Jenna Hayden, president, at 805.423.6274 or jhay805@gmail.com.

Angels Family Summer BBQ

Saturday, July 18, 11-1pm

Tucker's Grove Park, Goleta

Please join us for our 3rd annual summer picnic! All Angels families, past and present, are welcome to attend. Bring interested friends and family too! Don't miss this final opportunity to say goodbye to our wonderful Betsy, who will be leaving for grad school. BBQ lunch, family games, face painting, bubbles and fun! Watch for your invitation from EventBrite to arrive this week!

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 for South County opportunities or contact Kelly for any events or projects in North County.