July 2004
Dear Caregivers
It
is with great pride that I write this as your new President. As many of you are aware, the BCFFPA
Provincial AGM was held in Kamloops on June 11th and 12th,
2004. At that time, elections were
held, and joining me on the Executive Committee are, Melanie Filiatrault as
Vice President, Willy Neal as Secretary, and Lyn York as Treasurer. I look forward to working with these people,
as well as the Regional Delegates, Marilou Bancud – Vancouver Coastal, Betty
Davis – Fraser, Wendy Sutherland – Interior, Rick Nelson – North, and Sheila
Davis – Vancouver Island.
Prior
to our AGM, the Board of Directors attended two days of Strategic Planning for
our organization. Our Provincial
Partners were invited to attend, and we were very pleased to have Teresa Lum –
Federation of BC Youth in Care Networks, Ian Mass – Children’s Officer, Karen
Madeiros – Adoptive Families Association of BC, Gary Mavis – Federation of
Aboriginal Foster Parents, and Peter Dudding – Child Welfare League of Canada
join us. One area worked on was the
development of a Vision Statement. I would like to thank all those members
present at the AGM for their feedback as to which Vision Statement best
reflected the goals of the Federation. Two Vision Statements were put forward
to the members at the AGM for their input.
The final Vision Statement for the BCFFPA reads:
“Supporting children and
youth to reach their full potential through excellence in foster care”
Our
mission statement will remain the same.
For more information on the meetings held, and the AGM, please visit our
website at www.bcfosterparents.ca. All
board meeting minutes and other key information is also available through this
venue, in an effort to keep foster parents updated.
We
are very pleased that the Interior Region has taken on the task of forming a
Macro Regional Council. They will be
piloting this endeavor, and the provincial board will assist with some of the
start-up costs, and with the development of policy. It is hoped that all five regions will set up Macro Councils in
the near future. The provincial board
has earmarked funds to assist other regions in the formation of these Macro
Regional Councils.
I
had the opportunity as Vice President to meet with Minister Clark in May. Another meeting has been arranged for myself
and Melanie Filiatrault, the new Vice President, to meet with Minister Clark at
the end of September.
I am hoping this coming year
will be a very positive and productive one for the BCFFPA at all levels. It is my mission to secure more funding by
means of increased membership and fundraising initiatives, in addition to
continuing with our contracted services with MCFD.
We
are striving to increase our membership numbers, as this supports the work of
the regions financially with 2/3 of each membership being returned to the
region for their use. The provincial
organization is holding a membership drive for new or renewing members who pay
their dues between June 12th and September 31st. In addition to that, these memberships will
be valid until December 2005. We are
also encouraging Associate Memberships in the Federation, and there is a
separate membership drive being undertaken for this group. For more details, please see the
advertisement on page 15.
The
board continues to look at ways of supporting foster parents. We would like to hear from you with ideas on
how we can do this.
We
are planning to have a fund available to assist foster parents financially with
summer camp for their CIC’s starting the summer of 2005. The Board will be developing criteria
etc. More information will be available
by Spring 2005.
I
am excited about the following year and am committed to following through on
all the Strategic Plans that were formed in June. We have a dedicated Board who, I believe, are ready for the
challenge.
Please
feel free to contact me. I can be
reached via the Federation office at 1-800-663-9999, or 604-664-0124.
Sheila
Durnford
BCFFPA President