PRESIDENT’S REPORT JUNE 2005 - Sheila Durnford
Dear Caregiver:
Since our last Info letter was sent out the BCFFPA has continued to work very hard on areas of concern for foster parents, special projects, and meeting with our partners and others.
The BCFFPA Annual General meeting and Conference
was held on May 27th & 28th, 2005 in Richmond,
BC. Our registration continues to
increase with a great turnout this year of Foster Parents, Ministry and Agency
staff.
The AGM theme this year was “Honouring Caring and
Sharing”.
On Thursday, May 26th the Board of
Directors met to continue working on our strategic plans. We assessed where we are with our goals,
which we developed at last years Strategic Planning Session in Kamloops. Many of our goals have been met, or are
close to being met. No new goals were
established as it was felt we needed to complete the current ones.
On Friday, May 27th various workshops
were offered. This year people could
register for an individual workshop if they were not able to attend the whole
conference, and this proved to be very popular.
The AGM was held on Sat. May 28th. Those attending the AGM were honoured and
received a rose and BCFFPA pin.
Elections were held and I would like to welcome Sheila Davis as our new
Secretary. Sheila previously held the
position of Vancouver Island Regional Delegate. We are sorry to have to say goodbye to Willy Neal who held the
position of Secretary. Most of Willy’s
time is taken up by working with foster parents and youth within her Region. Keep up the good work Willy! We are also pleased to have Lyn York our
Treasurer back with us for another term.
Claude Cuff from the Sunshine Coast will be the
Vancouver Coastal Regional Delegate as Marilou Bancud has resigned. Thank you Marilou for all the work you have
done at the regional and provincial levels for foster parents
Thank you to all the children and youth who
submitted posters for the Poster Contest.
All entries were posted and those attending the conference voted. Congratulations to the winners! Letters have been sent to all those
participating – 1st place winners received $50.00 Walmart gift
certificate; 2nd place: $25.00 gift certificate; all runners up
received $10.00 McDonalds gift certificates.
The first place posters will be taken to the Canadian Foster Family
Association Annual Symposium for judging at the National level.
The Camp for Kids grant was very popular and we
were able to assist 20 foster families with grants of up to $250.00 to offset
the costs of summer camp this year. We
will be offering this grant again next year and encourage those who were not
successful to apply again.
The Provincial Board is currently working on
several issues on behalf of foster parents. Some of which are:
Mileage rates for foster parents.
We have written a letter to the Ministry stating
foster parents concerns and have received a reply. The current rates are now being reviewed to determine whether
they are high enough to cover the actual direct costs of driving a
vehicle. This review should be
completed by September 05 and we will be receiving a copy of the results, at
which time we have been asked for our input and comments.
60 day Notice – Modification Agreements
The Ministry has undertaken a complete provincial
review of all modification agreements that occurred between April 1, 2004 and
March 31, 2005. The information is now
in the process of being gathered and analyzed.
Once the data analysis is complete we will be meeting with the Ministry
to discuss the findings and make recommendations.
Feedback to this draft was submitted, particularly
around Standard 4, which covers initiating, reviewing and monitoring
agreements. It is expected that we will
be invited to a joint meeting sometime in June when the feedback has been
incorporated into the draft.
Foster parents in various parts of the Province
have been having difficulty with Dental reimbursements. This issue was forwarded to the Ministry and
they have followed up on it. You will
find an article with further information about this on page _____.
We were successful in securing our Ministry funding
for the 2005-2006 year for specific
contracted services. We continue to research ways to fundraise
in order to allow us to support you as foster parents, such as the Camp for
Kids Grants, funds to offset costs of attending our AGM’s etc. One initiative was the application for and
receipt of a Gaming Access Grant, which will allow us to further our
communication and networking opportunities with foster parents throughout the
province.
We are hoping to be able to offer another “Grief,
Loss and Transition Train the Trainer” workshop sometime in September. If you are interested in attending this
workshop please call the office for more information and costs.
In closing, summer is nearly upon us, and school holidays are about to begin, or have begun!! I hope that everyone has a safe, happy and fun summer.