Rainbow Foster Network

07/10/2023

❤️ REGISTER for our next Charlotte Peer Support meeting on Monday, July 10th at Time Out Youth Center. Our special guest Frank Summers (he/him), will be sharing information about Rainbow Foster Network (and he's bringing treats!!🎉)

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/charlotte-in-person-peer-support-tickets-630293844857

05/10/2023

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/advancing-q***r-advocacy-tickets-630786809327?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=escb

We're looking forward to this event, which will feature workshops and information to advance LGBTQ+ rights.

On June 3rd, 2023, the 2nd annual Advancing Q***r Justice Conference (formerly Fostering LGBTQ+ Allyship Conference) will be hosted by Myers Park Baptist Church, and you're invited to support this amazing effort! This collaboration between Myers Park Baptist, Carolina RAIN, PFLAG Charlotte, Freedom Center for Social Justice, and other organizations aims to help our community understand what it means to be an LGBTQ+ ally and how to join the movement for q***r justice and liberation. In a time when q***r and trans rights are under fire, you don’t want to miss this event!"

2nd annual Advancing Q***r Justice Conference

04/17/2023

Please join us.

02/15/2023

Monthly Meeting: Tonight, February 15 at 6:30 p.m. Link in comments

01/18/2023

01/05/2023

Quadasha Mcilwaine is a social work doctoral candidate at Walden University, working on a dissertation centered on LGBTQ adolescents leaving the North Carolina foster care system, and needs feedback about what youth feel like they need as they age out and want to know more about their unique experience while being in foster care. Virtual interviews will take 20–30 minutes each. The participants will receive a 10.00 gift card as an incentive.

If you have aged out of North Carolina’s foster care system, or if you know someone who has, would you please contact Quadasha?

Email: [email protected]

Or reach out to us, [email protected]

07/20/2022

The NC Child and Family Improvement Initiative, which launched in May, will formalize a statewide network of child treatment providers to ensure that children in the foster care system have continuity of care without delay or interruption when moving from one area of North Carolina to another. Beginning August 1, 2022, North Carolina's six Local Management Entities/Managed Care Organizations (LME/MCOs) will offer an open enrollment period for child treatment providers. Read more: https://bit.ly/3Pp1Zvi

07/01/2022

Because so many unwanted, unplaced foster kids have been sleeping on the floor of a DSS office. Yes, really.

We need your help. Even a small contribution will help us keep running and advertising and trying to find foster parents who will take an LGBT kid. Link in bio.

07/01/2022

There’s still time!

This week, we were able to find a potential foster placement for a 13 year old orphan who had been sleeping on the floor of the DSS office. There are so many stories like this and most don’t end so well. We need more success stories. There’s a massive shortage of foster homes and so many kids. A donation will help us recruit new foster parents and provide support and resources. We need your help!

To address the huge number of LGBT kids in foster care who were kicked out of their homes because of their identity or because they didn't feel safe.

06/20/2022

THIS THURSDAY!!

Register at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMod-ivqz4pGdwGG8syDyHWrshtPx4Tb32B

06/08/2022

June 23 at 5 p.m.
Register --> https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMod-ivqz4pGdwGG8syDyHWrshtPx4Tb32B

There are an increasing number of LGBTQ+ youth in need of a foster home in North Carolina. Because of their identity, many of these kids experienced rejection by their families, or didn’t feel safe. Agencies that coordinate placement have had great difficulty placing these kids into homes, as many existing foster families are unwilling to accept placement of LGBTQ+ youth, and there are not enough licensed foster homes.

· The process to become a foster parent
· What is it like to be a foster parent? What are the kids like?
· What if you change your mind? What options do you have?
· What kind of resources and support are available?
· Not quite ready to foster? What other options are there?

Did you know that you could be a respite, or overnight, foster parent? Some foster parents cannot commit to having a child for weeks or months or longer. Some can only offer selected overnights or weekends. This is perfectly ok! These foster parents are needed, too! What is a respite foster? Well, those foster parents who do host youth for long periods, may need to take some time away for any kind of reason. Maybe they need to travel out-of-state. Or go on a weekend away. Respite providers will take the youth for that short duration and when the foster family is back, the youth will return to them. We also have situations where a youth may need overnight accommodations until other arrangements can be made.
Rainbow Foster Network, in partnership with Children’s Home Society of North Carolina, will present this session.
Rainbow Foster Network (RFN) is dedicated to providing support for LGBTQ+ youth in foster and kinship care and their foster families; to LGBTQ+ adults involved in fostering; and to those who provide services to LGBTQ+ people within the foster community.

06/05/2022