{"id":1044,"date":"2010-05-05T13:44:47","date_gmt":"2010-05-05T17:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/74.117.146.64\/~brevardf\/?p=1044"},"modified":"2010-05-05T13:44:47","modified_gmt":"2010-05-05T17:44:47","slug":"op-ed-florida-children-receive-hope-for-a-better-safer-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fpocf.org\/op-ed-florida-children-receive-hope-for-a-better-safer-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Op-Ed Florida Children Receive Hope for a Better, Safer Future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Capital Outlook<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Florida Children Receive Hope for a Better, Safer Future<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>By Secretary George H. Sheldon,<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>Florida Department of Children and Families<\/strong><br \/>\nFlorida is celebrating Family Reunification Week from May 2 to 8 with events across the state. We are honoring the Moms and Dads who worked successfully to complete a case plan under the watchful eyes of a judge\u00a0and caseworker. They changed their lives and made their homes safe in order to be reunited with their children. These parents are heroes to\u00a0their children and examples to each of us.<\/p>\n<p>Parents achieving reunification don\u2019t get there alone. They are counseled and supported by caring people ranging from caseworkers to\u00a0service providers, from judges to attorneys and foster parents.\u00a0 Essential to parents\u2019 success is immediate access to services such as\u00a0substance abuse and mental health treatment, economic assistance and\u00a0training in parenting skills.<\/p>\n<p>With the support of state and federal lawmakers and Governor Charlie\u00a0Crist, Florida has made tremendous strides in providing children a safe and permanent home.\u00a0 Substantial credit for this success goes to our community-based care partners and each of their dedicated employees.\u00a0\u00a0These local agencies are the foundation of Florida\u2019s child welfare\u00a0system.<\/p>\n<p>The results are best seen in the individual faces of children and their\u00a0families, but the numbers provide a sweeping overview of this success.<\/p>\n<p>Since the beginning of this Administration three years ago:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>More than 12,000 children have been adopted out of foster care.<\/li>\n<li>An additional 15,000 children have been placed into permanent\u00a0guardianships, most often with relatives.<\/li>\n<li>The number of children in foster care has been safely reduced by\u00a0nearly 11,000, a 37 percent reduction.<\/li>\n<li>More than 29,000 children have been reunified with their parents.<\/li>\n<li>The length of time for children to safely reunify with parents has\u00a0been reduced.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To achieve these results, Florida changed its approach to helping\u00a0children and keeping more families together. Nearly four years ago,\u00a0Florida obtained flexibility in spending federal child welfare dollars under a unique national model allowing money to follow the needs of the\u00a0child, rather than being limited to children in foster care.<\/p>\n<p>Today the Florida Department of Children and Families, 20 community-based care lead agencies, and other partners work\u00a0cooperatively to provide individualized services to both children and\u00a0parents.\u00a0 Caseworkers use family-centered approaches that respect\u00a0parents\u2019 strengths and potential to overcome challenges to provide safe\u00a0homes for their children.<\/p>\n<p>Protecting children remains our top priority. When children must be\u00a0removed from a home because of dangerous circumstances, we don\u2019t\u00a0hesitate.<\/p>\n<p>Yet I have listened to children who told me how much it hurts to bounce\u00a0from foster home to foster home and school to school. Most wanted more\u00a0than anything to go home, if that was safely possible.<\/p>\n<p>Research has shown that the majority of children and youth who grow up\u00a0in foster care and do not achieve permanency with a family are more\u00a0likely to experience a life of homelessness, teenage pregnancy,\u00a0substance abuse, unemployment and incarceration.<\/p>\n<p>Not every child in foster care can safely go home \u2013 some will be adopted\u00a0by loving families and others will be placed under permanent\u00a0guardianships. This week, though, is about celebrating the parents who \u00a0 demonstrated how much they have done to safely care for and raise the\u00a0children they love. Along with other Floridians, I say to those parents\u00a0and their children, \u201cWelcome Home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Capital Outlook Florida Children Receive Hope for a Better,  [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-articles","wpautop"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Op-Ed Florida Children Receive Hope for a Better, Safer Future - Family Partnerships of Central Florida<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fpocf.org\/op-ed-florida-children-receive-hope-for-a-better-safer-future\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Op-Ed Florida Children Receive Hope for a Better, Safer Future - 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