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 is the child welfare agency in Monroe County.
Epperly said, “Our programs encompass all aspects of the dependency care system, including family support, prevention services. We do provide foster care. We license foster parents in Monroe County, and then when a child needs to be removed from their homes to keep them safe, we place them with a licensed foster parent. We have our Healthy Families Monroe program. That is for anyone who’s pregnant or their children are three months or less, they’re eligible to join. It’s a wonderful program that focuses on parent, child relationships and child development, and we work with that family until that enrolled child is five years of age. So there’s not many programs where you get a full five years of education and support. Then in Key West we have our Inez Martin preschool that serves ages two to five, a lot of other services provided that go along with the full case management, the foster care program.”
An information session on becoming a foster parent is coming up on January 29.
Epperly said, “Foster parents are our greatest need. Currently, we have 19 beds. So when we say 19 beds, that’s enough homes that have 19 available beds for foster children in Monroe County, so that’s not very much. We are always seeking foster parents. We are looking for compassionate individuals and couples to become foster parents for infants, children, teens and sibling groups, and we’re having the info session on January 29 at six o’clock via Zoom, if you’re interested, please go to our website, click on the foster care link, and then just we have the paragraph there. So this is just a Q&A session for anyone that has questions, you want to learn more about it. What it entails is an eight week foster parent training class. The foster parent classes do begin February 5, so it would be approximately eight to 10 weeks from six to 9pm via Zoom. And then once you complete those foster parent training classes, then you go through an extensive background check, and we do fingerprints. And that would also be for if you are a married couple, if there’s anyone else that’s like an adult living in the home, they would have to also get fingerprinted. Then we do a home study, make sure the home is safe for the children and so forth. So the entire process takes approximately about five months to become a licensed foster parent, and it’s worth it. I mean, these kids definitely need love and stability in their lives. And if you feel that you can give a child, love and stability and be a positive influence, please attend the the info session on the 29th and just get more information. And then the classes are kind of self filtering you. You will decide if this is right for you as you go through the classes. It’s not a full on commitment once you start the classes, but you’re going to filter yourself out once you kind of get more information, you’re going to say, okay, I can definitely do this, or this is kind of more than I thought it was going to be.”
You don’t have to own your own home to be a foster parent.
Epperly said, “Renters work, we’ve had many renters that are foster parents. You don’t have to be married. A single person is perfectly fine. We’ve had many heterosexual, homosexual couples be foster parents too. So it all works. We just need those compassionate individuals to take that first step.”
The Valentine’s Day Gala in Key Largo will be on February 14.
Epperly said, “Our Valentine’s Gala was historically in Key West for about 42 years, and we have since moved it to Key Largo. We’ve been doing a Valentine’s themed event, I would say, for about three years now in Key Largo, this year it’s going to be at our Key Largo office event grounds. We have a beautiful backyard space at our office in Key Largo, and we’re going to transform it. It’s going to be really nice. The ticket price is $150. That includes a welcome champagne cocktail, complimentary wine with dinner, and then a three station buffet dinner, and it’s going to be really, really good. Then also including buffet dessert. And for an additional $25 you can purchase an unlimited open bar wrist band to get some get liquor drinks. We’ve got a great DJ coming from Key West. I think we’re going to have some fun kind of, like, Valentine’s Day games going on that night too. So it’ll be a lot of fun. We’re going to have, like, an old school Newlywed Game, old school singles game. So I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. And then showcasing at that Valentine’s Gala will be our some items from the Keys wide online auction that’s going to run February 4 through the 14th. It’s a great online auction. We have items throughout the Keys. We have a lot of artwork, so if you need any art for your home office space, please check out the online auction. We are currently in the home stretch to collect items for the Keys wide online auction. It’s a great way to support us in a small way with a huge impact. This auction draws bidders from all over the country, so it’s a great way to focus on your business and just get some extra attention and support a great cause at the same time. You can get that info on our website. You can donate an auction item, and we can arrange to pick it up.
The Key West Galantine’s luncheon will be on February 9 at the Key West Yacht Club from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Epperly said, “Tickets are on sale. That will sell out because tickets seats are limited at that location. So I do encourage you to get your girlfriends and get your tickets soon. We have a tiered ticket pricing system this year, in lieu of the traditional sponsorships, this entire event is sponsored by Mount Sinai Medical Center of Key West. We’re very grateful for their support. But then, in lieu of additional sponsors we’re doing a tier ticket pricing. So they started at $100, $250, $500 and then $1,000 and then the difference of the ticket cost is a direct donation to support the Healthy Families Monroe program. We appreciate the support of the community. We can’t do it without our generous donors and we’re just very grateful, and we just hope everyone will come out, spend Valentine’s Day with us and get your girls and spend Galentines with us as well. It’ll be fun. And bid on the auction.”
For more information, click here: https://www.wesleyhouse.org