Community-Wide Celebration Honoring The Children's Center Foster Families

Special Event On May 2 During National Foster Care Awareness Month

DETROIT, April 19, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Children's Center will join communities across the country in celebrating National Foster Care Awareness Month in May by hosting a celebration to honor 141 of its foster parents and host families. Members of the Detroit community are invited to attend and sign a giant thank you card to acknowledge the unending love and dedication exhibited by our foster families.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090423/CCWCLOGO)

Those who may be thinking about becoming a foster parent are also invited to attend. Come meet our foster parents and host families. Ask them questions about their experiences and The Children's Center tremendous support group. Learn how foster parents can truly change a child's life.

"People who become foster parents do so out of love and compassion," says Debora Matthews, President and CEO of The Children's Center. "We ask everyone to take a moment during the month of May to thank these wonderful families who provide loving and safe homes for the children who need them."

At The Children's Center, we know the ideal environment for children to grow and thrive is with a loving and nurturing birth-family. Yet, too many children come to us frightened and traumatized from homes devastated by poverty, neglect, mental and physical abuse.

• Over 14,000 Michigan children are in foster care annually
• Every 18 minutes a child is abused or neglected
• Every 28 seconds a child is placed in foster care  

WHAT
Community-Wide Celebration Honoring Our Foster Parents and Host Families
Join us as we celebrate our foster parents and host families during National Foster Care Awareness Month

WHEN             
Thursday, May 2, 2013
5 p.m. – 8 p.m.

WHERE             
The Children's Center
Building 90
78 Alexandrine West
Detroit, Michigan 48201

"Become a foster parent. It's one of the most rewarding experiences you'll ever encounter. As a trained foster parent, you can help change a child's life by providing the caring support and guidance these young people need to heal, grow, and thrive," says foster parent Ms. Dyan King. "The Detroit community needs to ensure there will always be enough caring foster families with loving homes."

How to get involved? The Children's Center is calling on the members of the Detroit community to join us in helping elevate awareness about the urgent needs of these young people by wearing and/or tying blue ribbons around trees, light poles, car antennas, etc. - to signify their dedication to the cause as well as honor those already making a difference. Stop by The Children's Center to pick up your blue ribbon during the month of May. Show you care. Then take a photo of your ribbon and post it on The Children's Center Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/TCCofWayneCounty.

The magnitude of the urgent and sustaining needs of children and older youth in foster care, and their families, is great. These children desperately need a safe home, one that will nurture and raise them to be productive and capable adults. Come join us on May 2, 2013.

About The Children's Center
The Children's Center is one of the largest, most diverse and comprehensive frontline child-serving agencies in the State of Michigan. Together, with our community partners, we offer more than 20 interrelated programs that address the mental, physical and behavioral health, abuse and neglect, and poverty challenges faced by over 100,000 vulnerable children in Greater Detroit. To learn more about The Children's Center and how we help children heal, grow and thrive, visit www.thechildrenscenter.com.

If you would like to learn more about our Community-wide Celebration on May 2, 2013 or Foster Care Awareness Month in the City of Detroit, please contact Nicole Wells Stallworth at 313.919.2825 or [email protected].  

If you have questions about becoming a foster parent, please call 313.262.1119 or visit The Children's Center Foster Care Program on our website to learn more about how you can change a child's life.

SOURCE The Children's Center of Wayne County