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Amara has joined Alliance CaRES as a partner to lead the work providing support to formal kinship caregivers across Washington. The Amara CaRES Kinship program, will be the primary CaRES contact for kinship caregivers.
• Basic support services: Information about resources in the community around housing, childcare, mental health, and other related issues. Helping families find and apply for financial resources like non-needy TANF and concrete goods.
• Assistance with the licensing process: Help for kinship caregivers to complete the foster license application, choosing an agency or licensing through DCYF, and help signing up for Caregiver Core Training (CCT) which is required for all families who want to become a licensed home.
• Connection with Amara CaRES: Virtual drop-in discussion group for kinship caregivers! A time to answer questions with a focus on licensing supports on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month. No Registration Required.
Join us every Wednesday from 3:00 – 4:00 pm: Click here to join the Zoom session.
Contact KinshipCaRES@amarafamily.org for more information about services.
Through this partnership Amara will also offer tailored, one-on-one support for LGBTQIA+ caregivers across the state when facing unique challenges or barriers related to their SOGIE (Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity and Expression) or for any caregivers having challenges related to caring for a LGBTQIA+ youth in their home.
• Supporting LGBTQIA+ Youth in Foster Care: Understanding your child’s identity is critical to providing them the care and support they need to navigate the development years. Children with an LGBTQIA+ identity may need additional support as they navigate extra social and cultural factors. In this supportive facilitated discussion group, you will have an opportunity to talk through LGBTQIA+ terminology and identify concrete tools you can use to support a child’s LGBTQIA+ identity.
During the two facilitated discussion sessions, you can ask questions about support resources, share ways you have supported a child in your care, and hear how other caregivers have navigated situations related to a child’s LGBTQIA+ identity. Registration is open now!
• Navigating Fostering as a LGBTQIA+ Caregiver: As an LGBTQIA+ caregiver have you felt that your Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE) impacts your fostering journey?
In this supportive facilitated discussion group, you will get a chance to talk with other LGBTQIA+ kinship and foster caregivers about their experiences and share your own. As a group, you will talk about useful tools and techniques for navigating common issues faced by LGBTIA+ caregivers and use these to develop strategies specifically for your family.
This single session facilitated discussion is specifically for kinship and foster caregivers who identify as LGBTQIA+ caring for children with any SOGIE. Registration is open now!
Contact LGBTQCaRES@amarafamily.org for assistance.
Kinship Caregivers – Alliance CaRES Resources
As a kinship caregiver, you have joined the community in a unique way. Your circumstance means you are dealing with special dynamics, and navigating through the system in a specific way. You’re looking for family-focused resources, and we’re here to help.
Kinship Care Can Help Transform The Child Welfare System
Trey Rabun, Amara’s Associate Director of Kinship and Community Services, writes about his professional and personal journey which led him to centering kinship care. He asks the question, “Why weren’t we truly prioritizing these families as placement options and then supporting them at the same level as foster parents?” Read more about why supporting kinship caregivers can transform the child welfare system and how Amara is shifting to meet this need.
They’re raising grandkids with little help, and during a pandemic. Can’t we lend them a hand?
Seattle Times columnist Marcus Harrison Green shines light on the many formal and informal kinship caregivers across Washington state in need of support.
CaRES Specialist: Kinship
Amara CaRES Program Retention & Support Specialist
Brittney Lee experienced 17 foster homes in the span of 17 years of her childhood. Brittney’s current aspiration is to utilize her growth and knowledge gained from resilience, community involvement and employment opportunities with youth who have experienced foster care. She consistently involves herself in community conversations on child welfare and engages in opportunities where she can increase her understanding on how to best leverage her experience and meet her goals. One of those major goals is to become more educated on the subject of racial disproportionality in the child welfare system. Brittney hopes to work from the inside to come up with simple solutions to counteract racial inequality and institutionalized, structural racism that affects all youth in foster care today. Having grown up living with other children in the system from various backgrounds and at all kinds of emotional, mental and spiritual levels, Brittney has unconditional compassion in her heart to give back to the youth in the communities similar to those in which she grew up in as well as on a national and global level. She wishes to be a role model and source of support to youth experiencing foster care; to help them navigate all of the ups and downs; to be the someone that Brittney needed when she was younger.
CaRES Specialist: LGBTQAI+ Children and Families
Amara CaRES Program Manager
Trey is the Associate Director of Kinship and Community Services at Amara. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Hampton University, a master’s degree in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of Illinois, and soon after graduating with his Master’s in Social Work from the University of Washington in 2011 Trey begun his career at Amara. Trey has held several positions at Amara over the past 10 years including doing direct service work supporting youth in foster care and their caregivers, foster parent recruitment and outreach, and currently is leading Amara’s efforts to create programming focused on supporting kinship families in the child welfare system. He also manages Amara’s various LGBTQ+ programs including a partnership with Gays with Kids and current member of DCYF’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Group. Personally, Trey and his husband were foster parents for four years and have a 6-year-old adopted son.
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