- April 26, 2024
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Mentors, foster parents needed for children In foster care
Dear Editor:
I am issuing a challenge to each local church and faith-based organization to mentor at least one child in foster care.
The children who enter the foster care system are there because they were victims of serious abuse and neglect in their own homes. They often come into care with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Childhood is a time when we learn about values, the difference between right and wrong, building self-esteem and pride by accomplishing goals, the importance of education, and more. Good foster parents help children learn these life lessons, sometimes for the first time. They help children get on the right path to become successful self-sufficient adults.
Children in foster care are not someone else’s children, they are our community’s children. We encourage the faith-based community and local businesses to help our efforts to find more foster parents. Churches and synagogues can help by letting representatives from Community Partnership for Children come and talk about the need for foster parents. Businesses can help by encouraging employees to become foster parents, and letting teens in foster care come to their workplaces to learn more about future careers.
And how can you help? Please consider becoming a foster parent. At Community Partnership for Children, our goals are to recruit 60 new foster homes, and 25 new foster-friendly businesses and faith-based organizations.
Additionally, we need mentors for children and teenagers in foster care. These mentors spend one to two hours each week listening to children, advising them and encouraging them to make the right decisions in their lives and to pursue their dreams. For children who are away from their parents in the foster care system, mentors provide an important service.
You can find out more at the official state website, www.fosteringflorida.com. You can also call Lori Bainbridge at Community Partnership for Children at 386-254-3748. When you help a child by becoming a foster parent or mentor today, you are creating a strong legacy for the future.
Mark Jones
CEO, Community Partnership for Children
Thank you for the Wadsworth Dog Park improvements!
Dear Editor:
I am writing to publicly thank personnel at the Flagler County Parks Department for the recent renovations to Wadsworth Dog Park. The park looks beautiful and the dogs love the new “open” areas that have been cleared of brush. The new design gives the dogs so much more room to roam.
My heartfelt thanks to Frank Barbuti and Luanne Santangelo for their commitment to this project and to others who made this happen. Thanks again for a wonderful job!
Sandra Richards
Flagler Beach
