NH DCYF Celebrates Foster Care Month, Why NOT Family Re-unification Month?

NH DCYF Celebrates Foster Care Month, Why NOT Family Re-unification Month?
Oh, that's right. They don't celebrate because there is NO Family Re-unification in NH, so why waste more money on a Holiday that doesn't exist.

I thought this comment deserved it's own post. I hope you like it as much as I did. Sent from Anonymous:

Hey Unhappy Grammy,

Did you read that article in the May 3, 2011 from NH Insider stating that NH DHHS recognizes May as foster care month? NH DHHS claims that approximately 53% of the children in foster care will reunify with their families and out of the approximately 47% that don't reunify, approximately 77% will be adopted to foster strangers!

I have difficulty believing that DHHS will reunify approximately 371 children out of the 700 children in foster care to their natural biological families, otherwise the family courts wouldn't be costing this state so much money! Could you please show me the statistics of the number of children in NH foster care, the percentage of children in NH foster care who are reunified with their families and the percentage of the children in NH foster care who are adopted out to other families?

And why is there only a Family Reunification Day for celebrating the biological families with their own children, when there's a whole month devoted to foster people? Don't the children's natural biological families deserve to have at least an entire month dedicated to them too? Wow, looking at how NH DHHS celebrates the fact that children are in foster homes really shows how serious they are about helping families. Just look at what NH DHHS has to say in that NH Insider article: "In honor of Foster Care Month, celebrations are being held around New Hampshire. A statewide event is being held May 14th at the Hampton Falls Baptist Church in Manchester. Jellystone Campground in New Hampton will also hold its annual camping weekend for foster families in early June. There are also other events scheduled including ice cream socials, dinners, picnics and even a trip to Storyland. A list of all activities can be found at New Hampshire’s Foster and Adoptive Parent Association website: nhfapa.org."

So here are devastated and traumatized families who are extremely unlikely to be reunified with their children and here are devastated and traumatized children who are extremely unlikely to be reunified with their families, and here's NH DHHS CELEBRATING, yah we stole children from their natural homes and yah we've placed these 700 children in unnatural and unfamiliar environments; Great Job! Let's make it a State-wide Party, OK? Let's go camping! Hey! Time to have picnics! Now is a GREAT TIME for ice cream socials, don't ya think?! And hey, let's have dinners-- and after dinner let's take a trip to Storyland! Is this supposed to be an example of keeping within NH DHHS' sub-company NH DCYF mission statement: "We are committed to the support of families, to ensure the protection of children and the communities they live. To accomplish this we will provide leadership and develop community collaboration in the creation of public policies and programs which strengthen and assist families. We are dedicated to providing services in the least restrictive manner possible while respecting the dignity of the families we service." Looks to me like NH DHHS respects the foster families and provides services for the foster families via community collaboration and considers foster homes as the communities where children live, while providing a load of dis-services biological families. I've never heard of NH DHHS holding a state wide celebration with ice cream socials, camping, trips to Storyland and dinners in honor of Family Reunification, have you? The only trip to Storyland that I've ever heard NH DHHS taking biological families on is "The Never Ending Story" of devastation and trauma and heartbreak because the family's child has been taken away......Anonymous