Family Connections
As part of our expansion of programming as Siblings Forever, we now offer Family Connections. We continue to host separated brothers and sisters at our events, but our day and weekend events allow us to host separated siblings and their families. These events allow the families of separated siblings to connect- creating deeper bonds that will help them to keep those connections outside of our events.
​
The first four events of the year will be held as day events. Foster, adoptive, and biological parents and siblings have the chance to join in group events with other families, or in individual events that are held for just one sibling set. Siblings may attend without parents as well. Group events are held for multiple sets of siblings together. For individual events, each sibling set chooses the activity that they would like to do together and they are joined by volunteers and parents who choose to attend. We will have several events taking place on the same day and we can serve as many sibling sets as we have volunteers. First come, first serve!! Our final event of the year is our Family Holiday camp. Separated siblings and their families are invited to attend this special camp as we celebrate the holidays together!
We are excited to offer the following Family Connections in 2024, doubling the number of events from 2023.
Who is Eligible to Attend?
Youth in foster, adoptive or kinship care, currently separated from one or more of their siblings can attend our 2024 Family Connections. Children under eight need to be accompanied by a guardian. Youth in foster care can be registered by anyone with information on the child (foster parent, CASA, case worker). The forms must be electronically signed by the DFCS case manager as legal guardian. Once an application has been completed by another party, an email will be sent to the DFCS case manager to sign a mandatory authorization for the child. Biological and adoptive children may be registered by their legal guardian.
For these events, one application will be used for the entire family, with each member of the family registered under one parent account. For case managers filling out the application for children who will not be attending with a parent, you can indicate this in the application. Children MUST attend events with a separated sibling to be able to attend. There are limited spots for each event, and applications are processed when all sibling applications are completed. If you are uncertain if your child can attend some of the events later in the year, you can come back to the application and update it with additional events at that time.
Applications for Family Connections are now available! If you have any questions as you are filling out the application, you can contact Kasey Jordan at connect@siblingsforever.org or 770-296-5070.
In addition to Family Connections, we will also hold Summer Camp. If you are interested in signing up a child for Summer Camp, please visit our Summer Camp page for more details on these other events and to access that application. ​THE FAMILY CONNECTIONS APPLICATION CANNOT BE USED TO APPLY FOR SUMMER CAMP!!
