Grace Epperly, Development Coordinator with Wesley House Family Services, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the organization.
Wesley House Family Services is the child welfare nonprofit in Monroe County.
Epperly said, “We provide foster care, foster care placement when children need to come into care to ensure that they remain safe. We license foster parents in Monroe County, we have our free voluntary program, which is healthy families Monroe. That’s a wonderful program open to anyone who is pregnant or their children are three months or less. Then we work with that entire family until that child is age five, focusing on child development and parent/child bonds and education. Then in Key West, we have our Inez Martin Child Development Center, which is our preschool serving ages two to five.”
The Share the Love auction just wrapped up and the Galentines luncheon was also a success, as well as the Valentine’s gala.
Epperly said, “Busy past two weeks. We’ve been working on the online auction since the summer, and that just culminated on February 14. So we’re very happy with that. And lots of people won some pretty amazing items. If you’re listening and may have won an item, it’s ready to be picked up at our Key West location or Key Largo location, so you could just give us a call and let us know which is your preference. We’re very grateful for all the businesses and individuals who donated items and our artwork and so forth for the auction. It was very successful. We’re very pleased. In Key West February 9, we had our second Galentines luncheon at the Key West Yacht Club. So that was very well received. That was sponsored by Mount Sinai, and they did a nice presentation. So that was very informative. Then February 14, at our Key Largo event grounds, we hosted our Valentine’s Gala up there. That was the first time we did it at our office. It was really nice. We made it look beautiful, had action items on display, set up a nice tent in the back, had it really nicely catered. So we had about 120 people show up for that, and it was just really nice. It’s beautiful, great to spend time with the community up there and share our mission and emotions. I think it did well, was very well received.”
Wesley House always needs foster parents.
Epperly said, “I always say that foster parents are our greatest need within our organization. We never know when a child is going to come into care, and we don’t know where they’re going to be located throughout the Keys so we like to have a large pool of foster parents to draw from. So that way, say, for example, a child comes into care in Key West, we can keep them within their same school system and activities and friends, because it’s already traumatic enough to be removed from your home. So we really want to try to make it less traumatic and keep them in the same community, and then the same goes throughout the Keys. With fostering, you can specify, if you want to take babies or infants, toddlers or young children, or teenagers or sibling groups, or so forth. So again, it’s nice to have a larger pool so that we can, if it is a newborn, say, from hospital, we know there’s a foster parent out there that’s ready to take that newborn, and if they can accommodate sibling groups, we know that there’s foster parents that can accommodate sibling groups, so it’s a very, very rewarding opportunity. If you can offer love and stability to a child, you can be a foster parent. If you’ve ever even just considered it, or might have not considered it, but you’re hearing this, and something in you changes or sparks, and says, hey, maybe I can do that. I encourage you to call Amy, who is our foster parent licensing coordinator. Her direct line is 305-809-5020, and she can answer any questions that you have. The requirements are basically, it’s an eight week course. And she can let you know when the next one comes up. So it’s an eight week course. That means Thursdays via Zoom from six to 9pm and then after that, if you’ve made it through the course, it’s kind of self fulfilling, like you’re going to weed yourself out if you decide this isn’t for you. And then, of course, it’s an extensive background check for any adults that are living in the home, so that requires fingerprints and then a site visit to ensure that the home is safe. So that whole entire process takes about five months, once you complete the course, and then go through the extension check, and then you’re ready to become a foster parent. It’s simple if you can just love, have the love in your heart to open your heart to a child and really just be that positive influence in their lives, you can really make a world of difference. That’s what it’s all about.”
Healthy Families Monroe is also a resource through Wesley House Family Services.
Epperly said, “We encourage referrals with the Healthy Families Monroe program. So if you know someone who is pregnant or their children are three months or less, please encourage them to reach out to us and just learn more about the program. It’s basically you become the support system for the families, often they don’t have family in the Keys. And so it’s tough, It’s tough not having that extra support system. When the children are infants, we’re going into the home once a week and meeting with the families. As they get a little older, it tapers off. And then it might become like once a month or once every two months. And then we also hold monthly parent groups, where the families get together and bring the kids and even the siblings, and each month’s a different theme, so it’s really fun, and a lot of fellowship and a little bit educational, and we do activities. And then what I think is really cool about this program, when we’re going into the home, especially when the child is a baby, as a new parent, you don’t really know what to do with your kid when they’re that young, because they just lay around a lot, right? And then they might be sitting up and so forth. So we show them some activities that they can do with these children, with the babies, and it’s very interactive, and it’s just really fun, and creates those fun moments, and those child/parent bonds. We always try to bring books and just encourage early reading to the children. So that’s something that also we’re always looking for if you have young children, and you’re cleaning out your kids books, the board books, the young board books that are early reading, we can always take those donations as well. We just want to just say thanks again to the community. So grateful for everyone’s support. We can’t do it without this community, and that’s the way it goes.”
For more information on Wesley House, click here: https://www.wesleyhouse.org/