Foster Children in Sonoma Fire

 Please Step up for Children in Foster Care Displaced by Sonoma County Fires 

We are calling on the community to come together to support the most vulnerable residents of Sonoma County, children in foster care. These children, who have already suffered loss and trauma, were displaced by the fires, many losing the only possessions and stability  they have in this world. 

Pictured above is Joyce Hammerich with her daughter and granddaughter. Joyce is one of many foster parents in Sonoma County working to coordinate relief efforts for the 160 plus children in Sonoma County foster care who have been displaced from their homes by the fires raging in Northern California. 

Luckily, caring and dedicated families in Sonoma are sacrificing to ensure these children are safe and nurtured, even in the midst of chaos. Many of these families are displaced from their homes and are scrambling to figure out how to provide for their children's basic needs. This is a time when these foster families, who dedicate their lives and hearts to healing children and families, need us to help. 
 
The stories are countless: families who immediately accepted children made homeless when evacuated from the Valley of the Moon shelter, foster families who have lost their own home but are ignoring their own hardship to offer the  hugs and reassurance to children in care, and families living doubled and tripled up in order to ensure children are kept in their community and not sent far away from everything they know. These families are the magic that will ensure these most vulnerable fire victims will recover and return to a normal childhood. 
 
Your donations will go directly to support these foster children and will be distributed by the Redwood Empire Foster Parent Association, which is a nonprofit that serves all of Sonoma County and is working closely with the county to help all of the foster children impacted by the fires.  The money will help these families with money for temporary housing, food, diapers, formula, and basic necessities to get by while they are waiting to return home or to rebuild in the case of those families that lost homes. 

We all can make a difference for these children. 

Co- Organizers: Youth Law Center and Joy Singleton.

The Youth Law Center is a national public interest advocacy organization that works to transform child welfare and juvenile justice systems across the nation so that children and youth can thrive. YLC partners with Sonoma County on YLC's Quality Parenting Initiative, a system change initiative designed to re-focus foster care on excellent parenting as the most important intervention for children and youth. Learn more about their work at:  http://www.ylc.org/ 

Joy Singleton: I am a lawyer who has worked in the child welfare field with foster youth and on the state and national level working on foster care reform.  Because the foster families are overwhelmed, I volunteered to create the fundraiser and am working directly with foster parent Joyce Hammerich, the Redwood Empire Foster Parent Association, and Sonoma County Human Services Dept.