JIS: The Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) is undertaking a number of activities in observance of National Foster Care Week under the theme ‘Give Love, Inspire Hope, Foster a Child’. Manager of Public Relations and Communications at the CPFSA, Rochelle Dixon, says the objective is to raise awareness about the foster care programme and to encourage more Jamaicans to take a child into their homes. She said that the week will also highlight “the important contribution that foster parents make to national development and to showcase the achievements of children in foster care”.

 

Activities kicked off on Sunday (February 10) with a national church service at the Ocho Rios Baptist Church in St. Ann, and a special benefit performance of the musical Annie at the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts, University of the West Indies (UWI).

 

Other events throughout the week will include parenting workshops; community walkthroughs and interactive events at the CPFSA’s regional offices; and the launch of a foster care campaign, targeting 30 prospective foster parents from 20 major companies.

 

Promotional flyers will be placed in utility bills as part of an effort to encourage more Jamaicans to foster children in State care.

 

There are currently more than 800 parents and 900 families involved in the foster care programme.

 

For further information, persons may contact the CPFSA at 876-948-2841-2; visit the parish offices islandwide and the Corporate Office at 48 Duke Street; or visit the agency’s website at www.childprotection.gov.jm.

 

CAPTION: State Minister in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Hon. Floyd Green (second right), and Chief Executive Officer of the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA), Rosalee Gage-Grey (left), look on as Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Dean-Roy Bernard (right), greets foster-parent Lorna Lawrence, and her four foster-sons. The occasion was the National Foster Care Week church service held at the Ocho Rios Baptist Church in St. Ann on February 10.