Washington Co. Foster Parent Recruitment

11/18/2025

Recently we had a conversation about homeless individuals and their safety. We see individuals and families who come through our doors seeking emergency assistance daily. At times the reality of safety for a homeless individual is not seen when they don't qualify for assistance or there are circumstances that prevent an individual from being able to receive assistance. This discussion touched on homeless individuals sleeping in parks during the day because it was safer than sleeping at night. Aside from safety, the link below highlights other reasons you might find homeless individuals sleeping in the parks. So what other things have we not thought about when talking about the challenges of being homeless? The website brings up great information about survival, why individuals might be homeless and how others can help.

At least once in your life, you’ve probably seen homeless people sleeping in a park or on the sidewalk outside and wondered why they choose to sleep all day instead of at night. Maybe you’ve...

11/16/2025

November 16th - 22nd is Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week.

We have been sharing information all month about food insecurity and resources. This is a long read but highlights some important numbers. New York state released this report in January of 2025 on homelessness in New York State. The report highlights that our area has had the largest increase of homeless from 2022-2024 based on statistics provided by New York State Continuum of Care. Yet we have only two adult shelters and 2 youth shelters shared between 3 counties. They are wonderful programs. It's not enough. We need family shelters as many of our homeless are families. This impacts more than just social service systems. We need more awareness and advocacy.

11/15/2025

Anyone that has adopted from foster care can tell you; this is a difficult path to achieving permanency for a child. Children entering foster care have a primary goal of reunification. So why do we place them in homes with families who might be interested in adoption but are willing to foster. It is because of concurrent planning. Our foster parents work to develop relationships with parents to keep kids safe until they go home. What if the kids can't go home? Wouldn't it be better for kids to potentially stay with the families they have learned to trust and love.

You can imagine how confusing concurrent planning is for all people involved in foster care. The parents, the foster parents and the children. It is necessary to achieve permanency as quick as possible for kids.

11/13/2025

Farm 2 Library is a collaborative program between Comfort Food Community and Southern Adirondack Library System to bring fresh foods to the library that are available for families that are food insecure. Call your local library among the list below to see when they receive deliveries. In the winter months they still receive root vegetables. The following local libraries are participants:

Argyle Free Library
Bancroft Library in Salem
Cambridge Public Library
Crandall Library in Glens Falls
Easton Library
Greenwich Free Library
Pember Library in Granville
Whitehall Free Library

11/11/2025

The Regional Food Bank has a mobile pantry. What this means is that they work with a host site to deliver food in under-served areas. They plan a specific date and time in which they allow for "drive through pantry". The host site for our area is the Glens Falls Salvation Army. The next date is Wednesday November 19th at 2pm. I will include last month's post as it has the instructions and some important information in the comments:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Bhv5YKh4S/

11/07/2025

Let's jump to some information about Adoption Month. This article was posted in 2020 from the National Council for Adoption.
The number of times that a child enters foster care as an infant and is immediately freed for adoption is so statistically rare that many in the field have not seen a case. Does it happen? Yes, but this isn't the norm. Most families who adopted a young child from foster care were the foster parents first and worked towards reunification with the family. Families need to be aware of this if they are looking to adopt babies.

Foster care is intended to be a temporary solution to keep children safe until they can reunite with their families of origin.

11/05/2025

We have attached a few resources for our families in need. We know that the food pantries will be taxed this month. Many of the food pantries are limited to the people that live in their town or district. Many of the community meals are in another county but we have included the meal sites for seniors.

11/04/2025

This is not a new update but just a reminder. Our SNAP workers are still processing applications as they come in.

11/03/2025

Tomorrow is the last chance to sign up for holiday help with Christmas.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1G7xWRUxVW/

If you missed our Christmas assistance sign-ups, and have NOT applied for assistance through any other agency, we have ONE make-up day next week (sorry, no exceptions)

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 4th from 11am - 7pm

(See attached flyer for everything you will need to bring with you!)

11/02/2025

November is Adoption Awareness Month. I can't move through this month without at least mentioning this. Adoption is the act where an adult formally becomes the guardian of a child and incurs the rights and obligations of a parent. It is procedure that shows a choice made by the adult in the relationship. As a result, it is often a joyful event but can also be a source of sadness and trauma for the child. Adoption deserves more than a month. Many don't realize the stress and pain on all parts to get to adoption. Families go through an extensive background check, training, interviews, safety assessments and waiting to be approved to foster/adopt. Those that foster may go through years of supporting parents who are not able to work towards safely reunifying with their children. They experience the grief of the children after every visit, the potential loss as kids move forward with reunification and the devastation of the children when the parents take those unfortunate steps back which can lead to losing their children permanently. Adoptive parents sit on the sidelines feeling sadness and loss for the kids and parents and the guilt of wanting to adopt in this sad situation. They begin the process for adoption always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Wondering what might pop up that might stop them from being a forever family.

After unending amount of paperwork and more waiting, the adoption day comes. There is a parade of happy excited people. Meanwhile they are in the waiting room, often surrounded by people who are struggling with their own hard days in family court. The adoption happens and then the forever. There is this mixed bag of happiness as you get to make all the decisions for your child. There is still that underlying trauma. New behaviors crop up and now we have to navigate this on our own.

November is dedicated to the good and the hard. Adoption is more than the paper. It is love, perseverance, anger and sadness. It is the formation of new bonds that don't diminish the old bonds. It is forgiveness and compassion. Adoption is an ongoing "forever" choice. It is not a singular or finite event. We share our appreciation for all our past adoptive families and all our future adoptive families.

11/01/2025

Please follow the link for the most up to date news about SNAP benefits:

Programs that Help Low-income New Yorkers Make Ends Meet. The New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance supervises support programs for families and individuals.