 | | | | | CMFCAA's 13th Annual Gala The beginning of this month, CMFCAA was honored to be able to host its 13th Annual Gala in person at the Capitol Plaza Hotel and Conference Center. Over 450 community members and supporters attended this year's event and it has been mentioned multiple times since that the 2021 Annual Gala was the best one yet! Showcasing local adoption stories presented by real families from the community and beautiful music performed by local musicians, the Gala was an emotional rollercoaster from start to finish. Not only was the program incredible, but the live and silent auctions were filled with exciting packages and baskets all made up of 100% donated items, gift cards, and certificates from across the nation. Perhaps the best moment of the evening was when Healthy Blue presented CMFCAA with a $50,000 check as a donation to help rebuild the playground that burnt down last month at the headquarters office. | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  | | | Re/Max Lake of the Ozarks Charitable Foundation Gives $500 Sponsorship! CMFCAA received a $500 sponsorship from the Re/Max Lake of the Ozarks Charitable Foundation this month! Our partnerships with local businesses and organizations mean so much to us. We truly could not do what we do without the continued support, donations, and sponsorships from our community. Thank you. Re/Max! | | | | | |  | | |  | Volunteer Program Update! | | October was a month to volunteer! With more than 30 different opportunities and close to 200 active volunteers, we surpassed more than 1,000 hours of volunteer service! Below are some of the highlights from the month. Gala Preparations - Many volunteers from MU’s Service Learning Program helped prepare decorations for our Gala on November 4th. Centerpieces, scrapbooks, and lots of other puzzling tasks were accomplished with smiles and positivity! King’s Academy Youth Volunteer Event – On October 27th more than 30 students from King’s Academy in Osage Beach helped sort donations in preparation for our holiday events for families. These youth truly showed support for their peers! | | | | | |  | Volunteers putting together our Gala centerpieces. There were over 50 total! | | |  | Volunteers posing for the camera after some hard work in the office. Love the smiles! | | | | | |  | | | | |  | Spooky Season Fun with Direct Services! October was filled with exciting activities! The Direct Services Team gave away over 200 Halloween costumes this year to foster, adoptive, and kinship families. We held pick up events at each office location, as well as in Waynesville and Lebanon. Children attended and chose from a variety of costumes available in their sizes. In Cole County we held an Odyssey at The Zone! Kiddos could enjoy many different activities including soccer, basketball, T-ball, and more. We also held a Callaway Odyssey at Fischer Farms in October! This was another fun experience for families complete with animals, corn pit to play in, hayrides, and more! First up, we help our family event at Pete’s Pumpkin Patch in Rolla. At Pete’s, the kiddos enjoyed games, hayrides, the zip line, a super slide, train rides, the hay tower, the petting zoo, tattoos, and more! One family was provided with Begin Again Backpacks for their new kinship placements as well as a crib, 2 dressers, 2 highchairs, strollers, and 2 car seats! Way to go Gus! | | | | | |  | Furniture Provided for Family | | | |  | Begin Again Backpacks and Furniture Provided for Foster Family | | | | | | October Testimonials “I got all the furniture! Thank you again so much! I will send you pictures when we get the whole room set up. Also, she is moving in on the 15th and she feels so excited to be getting all this furniture that is just for her. My husband is her woodworking teacher at school so the two of them had a great time working together to setup the furniture!” ~M family “I wanted to take a minute to say thank you to Kim from CMFCAA and Laura at the Fostering Hope Closet for all of the great stuff they gave us this week!" ~Anonymous "We took placement of a 3-month-old baby earlier in the week and literally had nothing for a baby. Now we have everything we need! We couldn’t do what we do without your support! You guys are amazing!!” ~B Family "CMFCAA has several staff trained as Child Passenger Safety Technicians. Gus Nash installed this car seat for this little guy to make sure everyone can ride in the car safely! Safe and happy is the best way to travel!" ~Anonymous | | | | The Trunk Clothing Closet The Trunk Clothing Closet has winter coats, winter-wear, and fall clothing are in stock now! Go get what you need before the winter settles in. Open hours will be posted on CMFCAA's Facebook page so keep a look out! The Direct Services team has been working diligently to wash, organize, and stock clothing donations at the Trunk Clothing Closet so it will be ready for our foster, adoptive, and kinship families to get what they need. If you have any questions regarding the Trunk, please contact Christal Jones at christal@mofosteradopt.com. Also, if you would like to help our staff in the clothing closet with organization and setup, please consider volunteering! We rely on our faithful volunteers to help us manage the process at our clothing closet. Address of The Trunk Clothing Closet: 2701 W. Main St., Jefferson City, MO 65109 | | | |  | Thanksgiving Care Packs include a whole Thanksgiving meal! You will get a frozen turkey and several nonperishable sides to create your own feast for the holiday. Register now with the link below! | | | | | | | | | | |  | | | | | Family Development Department New Life Assembly of God church in Eldon, Missouri, and The Central Missouri Foster Care & Adoption Association (CMFCAA) partnered to provide prospective respite providers, foster parents, and adoptive parents an opportunity to learn how they can support abused and neglected children in their community. Family Development Supervisor, Carol Montie, welcomed the prospective respite, foster, and adoptive parents and provided education through awareness on how to support children in their community who are in foster care. Sixteen remarkable families joined the Family Development Team to learn ways they can care for local youth currently in protective custody! These amazing families welcomed CMFCAA with open hearts. Together, Montie, her team, and the parishioners gave thanks before sharing a meal while all engaged wholeheartedly with the presentation. Montie recalls many personal accounts and heart-felt stories that were shared over this meal. Stories depicting details of foster and adoptive children’s lives left lasting impressions on the attending families. The movement made by the fellowship made that day empowered the New Life Assembly of God and their faith community to sponsor “Shine a Light for Adoption” and participate this Friday, November 12, 2021, to show support and turning on a porch light from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM. Montie would like to extend a big thank you to the New Life Assembly of God and the King family, for allowing CMFCAA to be a part of their church family! | | | | | |  | | |  | Community Connections Youth Project® | | Our CCYP® staff has been busy as they continue to provide young adults with the resources and support they need to succeed. Pictured on the right is CCYP® client, Alexa Gray, as she receives the keys to her first apartment. CCYP® assisted this client with completing applications during her apartment search. The program also helped Alexa by providing her with basic essentials to get her started in her new home! | | | | | | | | | | |  | Kinship Navigator Department Since the goal of obtaining guardianship and some degree of permanency and safety is so important in kinship families, I feel this family that we have supported through this process is one KN has helped the most this month. The family had a volatile situation where substance abuse issues were involved which resulted in incarceration of the parents and physical abuse charges. Children's Division placed the 2 children, but then withdrew from the case which concerned our kinship caregiver because she had no way to be sure the bio mom (bio dad passed away) would not take the children back into an unsafe situation. She decided to ask for our assistance to get legal guardianship in place. We have an attorney who has provided us a guardianship form to use if parents will agree to sign for guardianship. KN completed the form with the proper information and emailed it to the kinship aunt, who was then able to convince the parent to sign. KN submitted these forms to the attorney for filing, which has greatly relieved the stress of the situation for the kinship aunt, who also has her own 4 children in the home plus a mother-in-law who she cares for due to recent hip surgery. The KN department also provided a bunk bed with mattresses and 2 dressers for storage plus resources for food and clothing; kinship aunt has been very grateful for the support! ~Kinship Supervisor, Crystal Wilson | | | | | | | | |  | 30 Days to Family® 30 Days to Family Supervisor, Tamara Fish, met with Sarah Ruhnow from Hope’s Summit regarding getting Christmas gifts together for foster/adoptive/kinship children. Plans were made and finalized for getting the information out. Developing the partnership with Hope’s Summit has made things easier for several departments within CMFCAA for Christmas! In October, a 30 Days to Family Specialist joined the Rolla Rotary Chapter. This was her first Lunch with them and she will continue to join them every Friday to make connections and build communty relationships. | | | | | |  | | | | | | | CMFCAA Hosts The 2021 Journey Home Bus Tour This month, CMFCAA had the honor of hosting the 20201 Journey Home Bus Tour, an interactive, education, and emotional simulation of what a child encounters upon entering the Foster Care System. The event provided an inside look into the child welfare system and presented attendees with some heart-wrenching facts and an unforgettable experience. Special thanks to our staff at the Rolla Office and for our local community partners for working hard to bring this tour together. | | | | | | |  | | |  | | | Click the link below to see past Family Focus newsletters and learn more about our organization. | |  | | | | | Central Missouri Foster Care & Adoption Association
809 Swifts Hwy. | Jefferson City, Missouri 65109
573-298-0258 | info@mofosteradopt.com | | | | | | | | | | | |
