June is National Reunification Month

Did you know that this month of June is the National Reunification Month in North Carolina?

It is observed annually in June to highlight the formidable efforts of foster families, kinship caregivers, child welfare professionals, and foster youth advocates to help families stay stronger together.?

Here’s a quick tip from AdoptUSKids on their Equipping Foster Parents to Actively Support Reunification manual on how to enable foster families to actively support reunification:

• Use consistent messaging in family recruitment, response, engagement, and orientation to convey the temporary nature of foster care and the role foster parents play.
• Encourage positive attitudes towards?birth families in your interactions with?foster parents.?
• Ensure training includes skills that foster parents need to support reunification.?
• Incorporate birth parents and youth into your training curriculum.?
• Provide opportunities for peer support from foster parents who have experience actively supporting reunification.?
• Provide clear guidance and support on birth family contact and visitation.?
• Offer enhanced support during periods of transition and loss.
• Incorporate feedback and data analysis to improve your services.
• Give special consideration to kinship caregivers

Let us support our foster youth and their families in their journey!

#NationalReunificationMonth

Reference:

AdoptUSKids. (2019, May). Equipping foster parents to support reunification. AdoptUSKids. https://www.adoptuskids.org/_assets/files/AUSK/Publications/equipping-foster-parents-to-support-reunification-web508.pdf