December 21, 2007 - The image of a parent and a baby dozing off together in the parent's bed isn't an uncommon one. It's a warm gesture and seems the natural thing to do, particularly on a cold winter's night. But is it safe?
December 7, 2007 - The Division of Family and Children Services' Right from the Start Medicaid Outreach Project (RSM) will provide holiday health screenings for metro Atlanta families at its annual Winter Wonderland Health Fair, Saturday, December 15th, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The family event will be held in the Willie Freeman Health Department, located at 1920 John Wesley Ave. in College Park. The RSM program provides comprehensive health services for working families. The event is free and open to the public.
November 27, 2007 – There are approximately 200 children in foster care in Clarke County and the Clarke County Department of Family and Children Services is working to make sure they have a cheerful and memorable holiday season. Beginning Friday, December 7, Clarke County will kick-off its "Angel Project" in partnership with WMLS Radio and to provide Christmas gifts for foster children in Athens and throughout the county.
November 26, 2007 – To close out National Adoption Month and enter into the holiday season, several South Georgia DFCS offices and community partners will take part in a Candle Light Ceremony Thursday, November 27 at 6:00 at the Tift County Courthouse at the corner of Tift Ave and 2nd Street in Tifton. Judge Jim McCorvey, Chief Justice of Tift Judicial Court will be the keynote speaker.
November 13, 2007 - Over the last few years, Georgians with developmental disabilities have benefitted from the most community resources in the Department of Human Resource (DHR) history. In addition, the number of children admitted into Georgia state hospitals has decreased by 50% due to an increase in crisis stabilization services and in-home supports. Increasing the number and quality of community services for vulnerable populations, including the mentally ill and developmentally disabled, is one of five key goals of DHR.
November 8, 2007 – Adoption will take center stage in Savannah Sunday, November 11 at noon at the Chatham County Department of Family and Children Services’ "One Church, One Child" celebration of adoption. The program will highlight the specific efforts of adoption awareness in churches, based on the concept that if one family in every congregation adopted one child, there would be no more children waiting for adoption. The event, which is open to the public, will be at Smryna Missionary Baptist Church, 1501 Burroughs St., in Savannah.
November 8, 2007 – The month of November is celebrated as National Adoption Month and DHR’s Division of Family and Children Services Adoption Unit is focusing its efforts this month on raising awareness about the specific needs of children in foster care. Throughout the month of November, DFCS’ Adoptions Unit will provide numerous opportunities for the community to learn about the thousands of children in state care who are waiting to be adopted.
October 31, 2007 – With winter approaching the Department of Human Resources (DHR) will again provide heating assistance for low income Georgians through LIHEAP, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. The $20 million federally funded energy assistance pr ogram will help low-income families, the elderly and the disabled with heating bills. Starting November 1, the homebound and the elderly (65+) may apply for assistance at their local community action agencies.
October 16, 2007 – The Department of Human Resources Afterschool Services Program will be able to provide afterschool activities to 3,000 more children statewide, extend its services from summer to year-round, and add more schools and community organizations to its service roster, thanks to $14 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
October 15, 2007 – The Division of Family and Children Services ’ Professional Excellence program, the statewide training and professional development program for case managers and supervisors, and one of DHR’s efforts to reduce staff turnover and enhance professionalism, has doubled in participation by DFCS frontline staff.
October 3, 2007 – Domestic violence is a universal problem that has no bounds and all too often young children and teenage girls are among Georgia’s thousands of faces of victims, either directly or indirectly. While system responses are primarily targeted toward adult victims of domestic abuse, program administrators of the Department of Human Resources Family Violence Unit say that there’s increased attention on children who witness domestic violence as well as those in teen dating violence situations.
October 2, 2007 – Domestic violence is the leading cause of injuries for girls and women between the ages of 15 and 44 in the state of Georgia. And according to statistics, nearly 30 percent of Georgia women in that age group will be abused at least once by their partners during their lifetime. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and across the state the Family Violence Unit of the Department of Family and Children Services is joining health care providers, businesses, policy makers, faith-based groups, college and high school students, and many others in statewide activities and community events to raise awareness about domestic abuse.
September 24, 2007 – The Department of Human Resources has been awarded a $500,000 federal grant from the Department of Education to assist in the integration and educational transition of refugee students and their parents. The Refugee Children School Impact Grant Program allows DHR to fund numerous programs and services, primarily focused on parental involvement, in Atlanta Public Schools and the Dekalb, Fulton and Gwinnett county school systems through August 2008.
September 12, 2007 – The Department of Human Resources (DHR) is providing cooling assistance for low income Georgians through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The $6.4 million federally funded program will provide much needed assistance to those who are experiencing added financial strain in paying their power bills due to recent high temperatures. The state expects to serve approximately 24,000 low income households.
September 10, 2007 – Although Georgia has seen mostly increases in its Food Stamp Participation Rate over the last few years, officials at the Division of Family and Children Services are continuing to look for ways to let more qualified Georgians know that they are eligible for the federally funded program.
September 10, 2007 – Approximately 25 children, each with the hope of finding a permanent family will have the opportunity to get acquainted with families that are looking to adopt at the "adoption party" and videoconference on Saturday, September 29, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness in downtown Atlanta.
August 17, 2007 – More than 2,000 families currently on waiting lists for Georgia’s subsidized daycare services program won’t have to wait much longer. The Department of Human Resources Division of Children and Family Services announced today that it will set new policies and fee structure for Georgia’s Childcare and Parent Services (CAPS) program. This move is will generate more than $7 million annually, providing the opportunity to serve more low-income families, many of whom have been on statewide waiting list for a year or more.
August 17, 2007 – In Georgia you don’t need to have a lot of money and you don’t have to travel far to adopt a child. You just need to be the kind of caring, responsible person who wants to give a child a home and a family. Last year, from July 2006 – June 2007, the Department of Human Resources Division of Family and Children Services assisted such individuals and families in adopting more than 1,200 children who were in permanent custody of the state.
August 13, 2007 – Approximately 20 children, each with the hope of finding a permanent family, will have the opportunity to get acquainted with prospective adoptive parents at an "adoption party" and videoconference Saturday, August 25, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Macon State College, 100 College Station Drive.
August 10, 2007 - The Georgia Department of Human Resources, the Mall at Stonecrest and Crossroads News have come together to put on the largest adoption resource fair in the region. "Adoptions Expo 2007" takes place Saturday, August 18, from noon – 5:00 p.m. at the Mall at Stonecrest in Lithonia. The event is open to the public.
August 1, 2007 - The Division of Family and Children Services has named Dannette Smith the new director of Fulton County DFCS. Smith will join Commissioner BJ Walker and Mary Dean Harvey, director of the Division of Family and Children Services, at a news conference Wednesday, August 1 at 10:30 a.m. at 2 Peachtree Street, on the 29th Floor. Smith, who takes the helm September 10, will be responsible for directing the child welfare services of the state’s largest DFCS office, including managing a staff of more than 1,300.
July 23, 2007 – The Department of Human Resources’ "Promoting Safe and Stable Families" program (PSSF) designed to prevent child abuse and alleviate crises that lead children to foster care, is doing just that. The statewide initiative served nearly 24,000 families and children last year and 89 percent of the families that used PSSF’s services had no reports of child abuse or neglect.
July 19, 2007 – Refugees from foreign lands and the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services may not sound like they go together. But for thousands of refugees who enter Georgia each year, the state agency focused on family self-sufficiency is the perfect match. They come from war-torn countries, countries that experience the horrors of genocide and countries where hunger is an ever-present companion. Many are victims of human trafficking. The Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) is their first step to self-sufficiency in a new land.
July 13, 2007 - Georgia remains a national welfare-to-work model as it continues to steer more people off government assistance toward work. The state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (TANF), which provides assistance to poor families, recently instituted the Work Support Program to help working families once they leave TANF with ongoing employment intervention support services.
July 13, 2007 - What began as a weekend camp some 15 years ago has evolved into year-round, life-changing experiences, and children in foster care are all the better for it. Camp Horizon, which partners with departments of Family and Children Services in metropolitan Atlanta, is gearing up to give this year’s participants a week to remember.
July 9, 2007 – More than 130 local, state and federal child welfare officials will participate in a planning summit that has one collaborative goal on the agenda: continued improvement of the child welfare system in Georgia. The summit, held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, July 10 in Peachtree City at the Wyndham Peachtree Conference Center, will focus on the Child and Family Services Review’s (CFSR) preliminary report, and will use the report as the base to discuss an improvement plan for the state.
July 3, 2007 – The Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) and private adoption agencies will sponsor "Building Connections: Enhancing the Lives of Teens," a day of discussion and activities for adults who are interested in learning more about becoming a mentor, foster parent, or an adoptive family to a teenager. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held Saturday, July 14 from 8:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. at the Jim Huie Recreation & Aquatics Center, 9045 Tara Boulevard, in Jonesboro.
July 2, 2007 - School is out and the children are in. Now that summer is here, there will be more opportunities for children to be left home alone and more worry for parents who wonder if they should leave them without adult supervision. The Georgia Department of Human Resources urges caution and vigilance when leaving children home alone.
June 27, 2007 - (ATLANTA) More than 600 teenagers and young adults who are participating in TeenWork, DHR’s summer work program, will have earned approximately $730,000 by the end of the six week employment period this summer. The program, which provides job opportunities to young people in the foster care system, has seen a steady increase in its participation by those seeking summer work and by companies looking to hire them.
June 18, 2007- Today, a report prepared by the Accountability Agents, assigned to monitor the Kenny A. Consent Decree and the state’s progress, was released. The Period II Monitoring Report outlines twenty-three outcomes that measured The Department of Family and Children Services’ (DFCS) performance in specific areas of child welfare between the dates of June 2006 to December 2006. The report reveals that DFCS either surpassed or were within points of the required scoring for more than 80% of the twenty-four outcome measures.
June 7, 2007 – Some 29 foster care teens who recently graduated from hi gh school and are headed to, or currently in college, will be awarded more than $86,000 in scholarships for their academic achievement – an achievement and milestone that most foster care youth don’t reach: a high school diploma or a college degree.
June 1, 2007 – Approximately 25 children with hopes of finding permanent families and prospective parents who are interested in adoption, will have the opportunity to get acquainted at an "adoption party" and videoconference Saturday, June 9, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness in downtown Atlanta.
May 3, 2007 – The Georgia Department of Human Resources (DHR) will honor the Resource Development Team of Warner Robins, Georgia at the 2007 Public Employee Recognition Week Awards Luncheon. The luncheon will be held on Tuesday, May 8, 2007, at 11:30 a.m. at the Freight Depot located at 65 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, in Atlanta, Georgia. DHR’s Commissioner, as well as the Executive Management Team will present the awards.
May 3, 2007 – The Georgia Department of Human Resources (DHR) will honor Bonnie Blakley of Savannah, Georgia at the 2007 Public Employee Recognition Week Awards Luncheon. The luncheon will be held on Tuesday, May 8, 2007, at 11:30 a.m. at the Freight Depot located at 65 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, in Atlanta, Georgia. DHR’s Commissioner, as well as the Executive Management Team will present the awards.
April 20, 2007 – Each year nearly 3 million reports of suspected child abuse are filed. Many more cases may never get reported. Tragically, in the U.S. three children die each day as a result of abuse or neglect. In Dodge County alone, from July 1, 2005 through June 2006, there were 137 confirmed cases of abuse and/or neglect.
March 8, 2007 - Officials with the Georgia Department of Human Resources have announced that a disaster food stamp program has been set up to assist residents of Sumter County, where a tornado tore into the southwestern part of Georgia March 1st.