Family

Marin in Need of More Resource Families for Teens

Published

5 years ago

May 2, 2019

Many Marin foster youths are placed outside of Marin. Let’s bring them home!

Sadly, nearly 30 percent of the Marin County children in foster care have to live outside of Marin because of a lack of local resource families willing to provide temporary care while biological families work toward reunification.

The Marin County Recruitment Collaborative and the Marin County Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) seek more homes in Marin so they can help bring those youths back home.

In honor of National Foster Care Month in May, Marin HHS’ Children and Family Services division is co-hosting a screening of Instant Family, a movie inspired by actual events from the life of writer/director Sean Anders. The screening, also sponsored by CFI Education, will take place Thursday, May 9, at 7:00 p.m. at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. A panel discussion with members of the Marin fostering community will follow the screening. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Marin Foster Care Association. Tickets, which are $11.75 for adults and $8.50 for kids and seniors, are available on the Rafael’s website.

Children come into the child welfare system through no fault of their own and are among the county’s most vulnerable residents. Every effort is made to keep foster children in their own school and community, to keep siblings together, and to create good matches between kids and families. In order to do that, we need a larger, more diverse pool of foster homes. Resource families can provide temporary care to children while biological families work toward reunification or they can choose to be an adoptive family; both are needed.

“We each can play a part in enhancing the lives of kids and young people in foster care to help ensure a bright future for them,” said Leslie Fields, Marin HHS Child Welfare Worker. “We appreciate the dedication of resource parents and all the people who support them, and at this point we’re just looking for more families.”

Those unable to attend the film screening can learn more about foster care at a monthly orientation meetings hosted by Marin HHS staff. A social worker and a resource parent co-facilitate the meetings, discuss the application process, go over training and support available, and answer questions. The next orientation will take place on Wednesday, May 15, from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Marin Health and Wellness Campus, Room 110, 3240 Kerner Boulevard, San Rafael.

For more information and to register for an orientation meeting, visit www.FosterOurFutureMarin.org or call Leslie Fields at 415-473-6418.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Bay Area

Emiliano Zapata Street Academy Celebrates 40 Years Serving Oakland Families

The Oakland Emiliano Zapata Street Academy, a public alternative high school, celebrated its 50th anniversary this year with a community party and festival last Saturday with live music, good food, vendors’ booths, and activities for adults and children.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Live music was part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the Emiliano Zapata Street Academy, a public alternative high school, on April 27, at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church on Telegraph Avenue and 29th Street. Photo by Ken Epstein.

By Ken Epstein

The Oakland Emiliano Zapata Street Academy, a public alternative high school, celebrated its 50^th anniversary this year with a community party and festival last Saturday with live music, good food, vendors’ booths, and activities for adults and children.

Attending the Saturday, April 27 celebration were current and past students, families, faculty, and supporters of the school. The school is located at 417 29^th St., and the celebration was held nearby at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland.

For more information, go to www.streetacademy.online or call 510) 874-3630 or (510) 879-2313.

Oakland Post

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Alameda County

A Safe Place, Bay Area Domestic Violence Community Organization, Opens New Service Center in Oakland

Oakland-Bay Area non-profit, A Safe Place, announces the grand opening of its newly purchased building in Oakland that will be a service center for families that have suffered from domestic violence. The new, two-story building has over six new service rooms for counseling, mental health support groups, legal services, children’s treatment, safe space for community engagement, and partnership activities.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Façade of the new community center for A Safe Place opening on May 10 in Oakland. Courtesy photo.

By Courtney Slocum Riley

Special to The Post

Oakland-Bay Area non-profit, A Safe Place, announces the grand opening of its newly purchased building in Oakland that will be a service center for families that have suffered from domestic violence.

The new, two-story building has over six new service rooms for counseling, mental health support groups, legal services, children’s treatment, safe space for community engagement, and partnership activities.

Domestic violence occurrences and offenses account for a considerable amount of all violent crimes in Alameda County. A Safe Place is attempting to provide a safe place for families to heal. A Safe Place is the only comprehensive domestic violence assistance program including a safehouse, in Oakland.

The grand opening celebration will also serve as a fundraiser to build out healing, therapeutic spaces for children and adult victims and survivors and survivors of domestic violence (male and female).

The new service center will expand the work of the organization, founded in 1976 when a group of women working in San Francisco came together to address the urgent need for a shelter in the East Bay. A year later, they founded A Safe Place (ASP) in Oakland. Run solely by volunteers, they set up a crisis line to offer crisis counseling and information to battered women and their children.

The organization serves over 500 adults and children annually through a host of services including crisis counseling via 24-hour crisis line, emergency motel and safehouse sheltering, mental health services (counseling and support groups).

Under the leadership of Executive Director, Carolyn Russell, the organization has grown from a single program into the comprehensive domestic violence and assistance program. ASP strives to meet the growing and diverse needs of our growing community.

The organization hopes to complete all the upgrades and therapeutic room improvements by August 2024. The public is invited to donate to the effort by using the website at www.asafeplace.org/donate. The organization also accepts in-kind gifts as well as items from the organization’s Amazon Wishlist.

Oakland Post

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Bay Area

Obituary: Former California Education Superintendent Delaine Eastin Passes at 76

Delaine Eastin, who served as a former state Assemblymember representing parts of Santa Clara and Alameda County — and the first woman elected as State Superintendent of Public Instruction — died at age 76 on April 23. Eastin passed away from complications caused by a stroke.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 3, 2024

Oakland Post

Former California Education Superintendent Delaine Eastin.

By California Black Media

Eastin passed away from complications caused by a stroke.

Known for her power of persuasion, Eastin used her influence to be a champion for bipartisan issues that helped raise academic standards, lower class sizes, and emphasize the importance of conserving nature and the environment in schools.

Former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown and fellow legislative colleagues said that Eastin was in demand on the speech circuit while serving as a legislator.

“Few could engender the kind of emotion and passion she delivered in every speech,” Brown said.

State superintendent Tony Thurmond called Eastin a trailblazer who inspired fellow public servants.

“California lost an icon in our school system today. Delaine Eastin’s legacy as a trailblazer in public education will forever inspire us. Her unwavering dedication to California students — from championing Universal Preschool and the “A Garden in Every School” program to honoring our educators by establishing the California Teachers of the Year Awards — has left an indelible mark on our state’s educational landscape,” said Thurmond.