Canopy Children's Solutions host Foster care informational

This is a press release from Canopy Children's Solutions.

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Imagine a child that is alone, away from home without knowing when or if she will ever return. What belongings she may possibly have are stuffed into a black garbage bag. There are no family or friends able to take her. If this was your child, what would you want most for him or her? Love, patience, stability—someone who would treat a child with compassion and bring him or her into their home as a member of their family? But what if there was no one? What would happen then?

This is a harsh reality for many children living in the Mississippi foster care system. Children in need of families to welcome them with open arms are instead shuffled from place to place, never knowing where they will be from one day to the next. These children are left powerless and clinging onto fainting hope that someone will answer their call for help.

Every day Canopy Children’s Solutions receives a call for placement regarding one of the more than 5,200 foster children in Mississippi. Sadly, without therapeutic resource families ready to welcome children, they are turned away. You can be there to answer their call. Canopy is hosting an informational meeting for individuals and families interested in learning more about therapeutic foster care (TFC). The meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 18, 2018, at 6:00 p.m. at the Canopy office located at 105 Asbury Circle, Suite A, Hattiesburg.

Canopy believes that all children deserve to grow up in nurturing, stable families. When children are placed into foster care, it is often due to circumstances involving abuse, neglect and/or exploitation. Following such traumatic events, children need individuals or families to provide loving reassurance in the comfort of a temporary safe haven.

Canopy’s TFC Program specializes in the care of foster children with emotional, developmental and medical needs. When children are enrolled in the program, they receive interventions that are designed to address their individualized needs in the most comprehensive manner possible. Canopy’s TFC staff not only provide direct support to foster children through individual and family therapy, but also to resource families through ongoing training.

“Ultimately, the TFC Program is looking for compassionate and dedicated resource parents who are willing to provide much-needed care to foster children with therapeutic needs,” said Elliott Brown, Therapeutic Foster Care Program Supervisor for Canopy. “Fostering is an opportunity to draw upon one’s own compassion, generosity and wisdom to help a child in need. These children need to be reminded there is love and compassion in the world; they need to know there is hope, and it can start with you.”

If you’ve ever considered becoming a foster parent, please take this opportunity to learn how you can be part of the solution for thousands of children languishing in our state. For more information about therapeutic foster care, please contact Elliott Brown at 601-606-0208 or elliott.brown@mycanopy.org or visit mycanopy.org.