May 2003

Dear Foster Parents:

It has been a long time since I have had the opportunity to report to foster parents in the province. There are many rumours regarding changes within MCFD. We are presently hearing of ministry reviews, both internal and by the treasury division, regarding issues around regions being unable to meet budget reduction plans. This is a very significant issue to foster parents. It can be very stressful to watch and wonder if it will mean another ministry change in direction or plans. I believe that, while this has very little direct effect on our children, it does seem to have a great deal of emotional effect on foster parents. During all the changes and rumors it becomes very difficult to get clarification regarding actual facts.

The question becomes, what do we do as individuals and as a group? I believe the answer is to put our energy into our youth and, as a group, work on ways to improve our ability work with these youth. We need to advocate at an individual level and, at times as a group, to make sure the youth we have in our homes are treated fairly and receive the services they need and deserve. As the provincial arm of the BCFFPA, we work on these issues through our joint affiliation with the other contract organizations in the province. The Federation of Child and Family Services, of which we are members, has been active in pushing the government to reevaluate the budgets. This organization is in support of the move to regional governance, but is strongly against the extent of the budget cuts expected over the next two years. There is clearly strength in numbers, and we will continue affiliating ourselves with this dynamic organization.

In addition to this Infoletter, there are many other projects your provincial board is working on. A survey has been developed jointly with MCFD and has been sent to foster parents in an effort to inform and assist both us and the regional ministries in understanding what supports are needed for foster parents and youth. As is the norm for this kind of survey, it is difficult to gather a meaningful number of responses. I would like to encourage those of you, who have not already done so, to complete the survey and return it to the provincial office as soon as possible. The survey is available on the BCFFPA website at www.bcfosterparents.ca. Another survey will be sent out late in the year to assist the federation and ministry in tracking whether positive changes have come about during the move to regional governance in conjunction with budget cuts. You can see how important this information is and how filling out such surveys will affect what services you and the youth in your care will receive. Remember your input is very valuable. If the ministry does not have feedback from you, then the ministry without your input will decide methods developed to support foster parents in your areas.

We are also working on a database in conjunction with the Adoptive Families Association of BC (AFABC) and the Federation of Aboriginal Foster Parents (FAFP). The eventual aim of this database is to compile a list of services and information available to foster and adoptive parents and their children, provincially and internationally. When completed and fully operational, this database will be accessible through the Internet and our organizations websites so that people can do their own searches to find the information they are in need of. The committee has spent a great deal of energy and time on this project to date; with many more hours of work still to come. We are very happy to have the AFABC and FAFP as our partners in this project and look forward to many more partnerships and alliances with these organizations in the future.

The BCFFPA Board of Directors holds monthly teleconference meetings. One of our ongoing agenda items is how we can support our BCFFPA locals. We have heard from you through focus groups and surveys that there is a strong need to remain locally focused. This type of individual support and voice is needed regardless of how good the services of the new contract organizations may be. The biggest roadblock to creating this support appears to be of a financial nature. With this in mind we are investigating ways to assist the locals in fundraising. One project we are working on, as a means of raising funds, is a province-wide vehicle raffle. It is hoped that area and local associations will assist in selling tickets and that those locals or areas will retain part of the proceeds. If any of you have any other fundraising ideas, the provincial board welcomes your input. In addition, the locals/regions are retaining all but ten dollars of your membership fees as a method of supporting their work.

Sheila Durnford, your Vice President, and I had a chance to travel to Victoria in late February. The main reason for this trip was to meet Minister Hogg and update him on the work of the organization. We received positive feedback from this meeting and found the minister very interested and supportive of what we are doing provincially. We used this trip to our best advantage by meeting with Paul Pallan, the Children's Officer, Assistant Deputy Minister, David Young, in addition to attending some Federation of Child and Family Services meetings. FCFS is a federation consisting of agencies/organizations contracting with the Ministry. We also had a chance to meet with individuals from the Foster Parent Support Services Society; the contracted organization now providing supports to foster parents in the Vancouver Island region. We then traveled back to Vancouver to meet with the AFABC and attended the 10th anniversary celebrations of the BC Youth In Care organization. All these meetings were extremely worthwhile.

As you can see, there is a lot going on at all levels. This is a time to stay involved and help support each other through the many changes occurring. I know it is an easy time to step back and say, "we have done enough, and what did we get for it?" This, unfortunately, will leave many foster parents very vulnerable and could lead to them losing their voices in the system. I strongly encourage you to support your locals and stay involved. Foster parents still need to support each other. Working in partnership with the contracted agencies in your area will allow the best level of support. Do not give up, as these organizations will probably understand the need for the partnerships in the long run. Partnerships are working very well in other provinces, and could work well in ours.

Frank Hetherington
President-BCFFPA