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Lakeland, FL – On Saturday, April 23rd at 5pm, Heartland for Children, Child Advocates and other supporters of child abuse prevention gathered at Henley Field in Lakeland, Florida for the Lakeland Flying Tigers’ game against the Dunedin Blue Jays. Pinwheels in the Park is a celebration of healthy families and local child abuse prevention efforts as part of Prevent Child Abuse Florida’s (PCA Florida) Pinwheels for Prevention campaign. PCA Florida and its community partners have sponsored campaign activities during April in recognition of National Child Abuse Prevention Month. The Florida Trucking Association and Rowland Transportation have partnered by wrapping a semi-truck with child abuse prevention messaging and sending the truck around the state to local events in support of the campaign. The Pinwheels for Prevention truck stopped in Lakeland for this celebration.
I began looking around, and saw something amazing. A group of people, all completely different, had found a place where they could be themselves, build relationships with other parents, let their children learn valuable social behaviors, and know that they aren’t doing this alone. A mom in pajamas just happy to be there, a dad whose wife passed away before their child was a year old, a grandpa wanting to spend some time with his grandchild, a stay-at-home mom, a stay-at-home dad, along with many other parents and caregivers, all had found a place to belong, sharing the one thing they had in common, caring for that child.
I left class that day in tears. Tears of joy. Joyful because I had seen families strengthened to take on the rest of their week.
My wife, Joy-Lynn and I became Foster Parent Mentors (FPM) through Heartland for Children in 2012. When we were approached with the opportunity to be an added support for incoming Foster Parents, we jumped at the opportunity because we saw the value in having someone who other Foster Parents could relate to as being an invaluable resource; especially, if the individual(s) were completely new to the fostering and/or parenting experience.
As FPMs through Heartland, we've had the chance to interact with incoming Foster Parents on many levels including assisting with respite, providing guidance or best practices with difficult behavioral issues, advocating for a child who had to be moved from one home to another, making recommendations on working with case management, providing another vantage point through the process of Termination of Parental Rights (TPR), and many other areas that Foster Parents can encounter during their first and continuing years of child advocates.
What we've gained as FPMs is a heightened level of understanding of how important it is to identify the needs of incoming Foster Parents. Being able to make recommendations on how the training component has and can continue to successfully equip incoming parents with the proper training and education; is a value add that Heartland has really welcomed input on.
Cebien Alty - HFC Foster Parent, Foster Parent Mentor