Tag Archives: DA Blodgett

Local foster agencies make plea for public assistance during foster home crisis

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By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

Currently there is a need for foster families in West Michigan. (pxhere.com)

According to Michigan Health and Human Services, there are about 13,000 children in foster care with at least another 300 who are still in need of an adoptive family. 

The need for more foster homes always exists, according to representatives of the local child welfare nonprofit D.A. Blodgett-St. John’s. Because the need is great, this May, which is National Foster Care Awareness Month, D.A. Blodgett-St. John’s along with others organizations that are part of the Foster Kent Kids are hosting educational workshops to help residents learn more about how they can help fight a crisis-level need for fostering.

“We are at a critical juncture in Grand Rapids for youth in need of stable foster home environments,” said D.A. Blodgett-St. John’s President and CEO Mary Muliett. “Simply put, we are in a crisis. We are in desperate need for foster homes, and we home the community will take the opportunity during Foster Awareness Month to explore this life-saving gesture.”

The main need? Providing temporary shelter for teens who are caught up in the middle of the placement process. For some teens, they wait at the agency all day until placement specialists can find a temporary shelter.

As a way to increase general awareness of the need, Foster Kent Kids workshops are designed to help potential foster families learn more about fostering.

This Sunday, May 22, Foster Kent Kids will host the program “Stand for Teens” at the Wyoming High School cafeteria, 1350 Prairie Parkway SW. The program is from 4 – 6 p.m. and will include panelists such as a foster care youth, adoptive parents and school administration. Through their discussion, the panel will share the lessons, challenges, and rewards of their foster experiences.

On Wednesday, May 25, will be the Zoom program “The Realities of Foster Care.” This one-hour session, which starts at noon, will be led by Rachael Aday, a foster parent recruitment and licensing specialist in Kent County. Aday is known for her passion for providing support and advocacy to relative and community foster homes. She will interview foster parents Josh and Lea Sparks to share their experience in fostering. To register for the zoom program click here.

Both of these programs are free. To register for an event or to learn more about how to foster, individuals can visit www.fosterkentkids.care.

Also to encourage adults to consider fostering, D.A. Blodgett is offering a $245 monthly stipend for each bed made available to a child awaiting a more stable placement. In additional to the monthly stipend, the organization will offer $100 per day when a child is in a home. Along with the payment will be personalized training and support from the organization.

At this time, the organization is seeking volunteers to step up and provide placement for youth ages 12 and older for a few weeks while their next placement is being identified.

D.A. Blodgett also offers a free monthly foster care information meeting, held from 6-7:30pm the second Monday of the month at D.A. Blodgett-St. John’s, 804 Leonard Street N.E., Grand Rapids.

Anyone interested in beginning the fostering process can fill out this form: https://dabsj.org/what-we-do/foster-care/getting-started/foster-parent-inquiry

Mystery billboards along US-131 revealed

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D.A. Blodgett-St. John’s revealed this week that it was behind the word billboards along US 131. (Supplied)

By WKTV Staff
joanne@wktv.org

A number of billboards have been baffling West Michigan for two weeks, and the advertiser has finally been revealed.

The anxious-looking designs with handwritten words like neglect, abuse, and fear have been posted around the Grand Rapids region, prompting a variety of responses and guesses to what the meaning may be.

However, earlier this week, a new design revealed the message belongs to D.A. Blodgett–St. John’s, a local children advocate agency that offers services like adoption, counseling, foster care, mentoring and more. Grand Rapids creative agency Extra Credit Projects was the creative partner on the project.

From cynics to proponents, speculations of who was behind the boards ranged from megachurches to PETA, to the visual representation of “what it’s like to travel US-131 during rush hour.”

Area residents took to social media to seek answers or express opinions about the mystery messages. Some online users expressed discomfort at the content of the billboards, while others argued that the subject matter was important to address.

It’s that level of engagement that D.A. Blodgett-St. John’s was seeking to evoke in the weeks leading up to April’s “National Child Abuse Prevention Month.”

“There have been a lot of comments online that the billboards have made people uncomfortable,” said Katy Buck, public relations and marketing manager for D.A. Blodgett–St. John’s. “Unfortunately this is the reality for many of the children and families that we serve in our community. Our goal was to evoke in viewers the same feelings that some children face every day—anger, fear, frustration, confusion, angst–and to have the reveal visually express that D.A. Blodgett–St. John’s is a refuge from that.”

D.A. Blodgett – St. John’s provides more than 20 services, impacts 9,000 lives every year, and work tirelessly to ensure all children and families have the love, support, and resources they need to thrive – today and into the future. To learn more about D.A. Blodgett–St. John’s, visit www.dabsj.org.

The billboards that were featured on US 131 were designed to help raise awareness about Child Abuse Prevention Month. (Supplied)