Community Blog Archives by Date Blog
Most parents in Hardee, Highlands and Polk Counties agree that they want to prepare their children to be successful in school. Get connected to resources to kick-off a successful 2021-2022 school year.
The Prestridge Family has started their foster care journey about 8 years ago and they have fostered about 100 children! Read their story here.
Can you believe we are just 4 months away from kicking off Heartland for Children's 17th Annual Rudolph Round-Up Holiday Toy Drive?! With your help, our goal is to help make incredible holiday memories for over 1,500 local children who have experienced abuse and/or neglect.
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