Members of IFAAP met with Senator Ron Grooms (seated at left) and Senator Jon Ford (seated at right) at the Indiana State Capitol today. Our group was very grateful for the opportunity to share information and ideas to help support foster children and the families who care for them. We discussed the following IFAAP priorities:
- Invest & Protect
- Child care financial assistance, where we shared results of our IFAAP survey feedback that many foster parents would take, or consider taking, more children if there were funding for child care
- Car seat safety and certification, to prevent car seat-related tragedies like Major Maxie’s
- Trauma-Informed Care (TIC)
- We discussed the importance of having school and day care personnel TIC-trained so they know how to best work with children who have experienced trauma and are unable to effectively communicate their feelings
- We highlighted the value of becoming a TIC state to attract providers and facilities who specialize in TIC
- Follow the Fed
- We talked about the importance of DCS adhering to the SAFE Families Act termination guidelines to get children into permanent homes more quickly to give them stability
Thank you to all of our members who took time out of their busy schedules to advocate for children and make a difference.