The Caregiver Courier
Safe Children. Healthy Families. Caring Communities.

Your place for news, updates and events brought to you by the Quality Parenting Initiative Nevada.

Quick Links

Visit QPI Nevada

Email us

What is QPI?

Making sure every child living in foster care is cared for by a caregiver (foster, relative, fictive and/or adoptive) who provides skilled, nurturing parenting while helping the child maintain connections to his or her family.

The QPI Nevada Brand

Foster parents nurture children who have experienced trauma and provide a safe, loving and healing environment in which the children can thrive. They are parenting partners who honor and support family relationships. Foster parents are dedicated, informed and committed advocates for children. They are instrumental and fully supported members of the child and family team. Great foster parents make a difference for children and families in our community.

QPI Calendar of Events & Foster Parent Support Meetings

Click here for a listing of upcoming events, meetings and other activities of foster care support organizations throughout Clark County.

Enhance Your Skills

Various trainings are offered in the community to help enhance caregivers' capacity to parent. Please click on the links below to learn more about exciting training opportunities from which you can benefit.

Just in Time

Nevada Partnership for Training

The Nevada Registry

The Parenting Project

Stay Connected

September 2014

"QPI Has a New Look"

You may have noticed a slight change in this month's Caregiver Courier. You're not imagining things. Recently, the Quality Parenting Initiative unveiled its new logo.

The inviting image evokes QPI's mission of nurturing children in a safe, loving and healing environment. Over time, this new brand will be reflected across all QPI materials.

Click here to learn more about QPI Nevada.

New Hours for Peggy's Attic

Beginning this month, Peggy's Attic at Child Haven (701 N. Pecos Road) has new, permanent operating hours. It will now be open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Peggy's Attic will be closed Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

New Peggy's Attic Hours

Monday: OPEN 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Tuesday: CLOSED
Wednesday: OPEN 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Thursday: CLOSED
Friday: OPEN 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Saturday: CLOSED
Sunday: CLOSED

Also, the time frame a caregiver has to go shopping at the attic once a child has been placed has been extended from 10 days to 14 days.

Please call 702-455-5424 for additional information.

Don't Say "No" Before You Know

The Don't Say "No" Before You Know series provides Clark County caregivers with information on a monthly basis about various topics that support quality care to children in your home.

This month, the Quality Parenting Initiative examines the myths and facts of respite care and what you need to know about temporary placement of a child in your care to another caregiver.

Click here to learn more.

Also, The Adoption Exchange is also offering a seminar open to all caregivers. Take a Break: Rest and Respite for Caregivers & their Families will be held Friday, Sept. 26 at The Adoption Exchange (51 N. Pecos Road, Suite 110). Cost is free and class size is limited, so register today.

Click here for registration and more information.

Are Your Kids Eligible for
School Bus Transportation?

The Clark County School District provides bus transportation for general education students who live two miles or more from their zoned schools. Exceptions may apply for special needs students and also for students who may encounter hazard areas like construction zones on their way to school.

Are your kids eligible for school bus transportation? Click here to learn more.

CCSD Notes & News:
Title I Parent Engagement Centers

The purpose of the Family Engagement Resource Centers is to help implement successful and effective family engagement programs and activities that lead to improved student academic achievement.

Additionally, the centers provide resources that strengthen partnerships among parents, teachers, principals, administrators, and other school personnel to meet the educational needs of children.

Click here to learn more.

Foster Parents, Kids Get Back to School, Back to Basics

More than 410 children in foster care received backpacks, school supplies and much more at the annual Back To School, Back To Basics event, held at Peggy's Attic in August. The total backpacks distributed exceeded previous years. Click here to see photos from the event.

Caregiver Spotlight:

Foster Parents Dan and Patricia

All caregivers expect to take care of a child when they are ill, but most caregivers don't expect to take care of a child who has been diagnosed with cancer. When a caregiver finds themselves in this position, who can they turn to for support?

For Dan and Patricia, their case manager called on the Foster Parent Champion Program to see what help was available. Patricia had been spending 24 hours a day, seven days a week at the hospital with her foster child who was beginning chemotherapy. Dan was home with their other seven biological, adopted and foster children.

After brainstorming with the team, it was determined that providing volunteers to sit with the child in the hospital so he would not be alone and scared, was the best option for the family. This would provide Patricia with a few hours each day to attend to the many needs of her family. The Foster Parent Champion Program quickly organized a community announcement and call to action, which was answered almost immediately by amazing volunteers.

The first volunteer shift began less than 24 hours after the initial request was made. The incredible community support was appreciated by the entire team which included the case manager, supervisor, the birth family and the foster family.

Click here to read a thank you letter from Dan and Patricia to all of the volunteers who were so generous in giving a gift of time.

Let Your Voice Be Heard at Step Up for Kids

With the fourth Monday in September officially declared Children's Day by the Nevada State Legislature, you have the opportunity to let your voice be heard. Join us on Children's Day, Monday, Sept. 22, for the 7th Annual Step Up for Kids!

Step Up for Kids will be from 3 - 7 p.m. at the Las Vegas Natural History Museum. Free and open to the public with no advance registration required, attendees will enjoy full access to the museum, a community resource fair, raffles and giveaways.

What: 7th Annual Step Up for Kids

When: Monday, Sept. 22, 3 - 7 p.m.

Where: Las Vegas Natural History Museum, 900 Las Vegas Blvd. N.

Go to www.PreventChildAbuseNevada.org to learn more about this event.

Every Superhero Needs a Sidekick

Appealing to the inner hero in all of us, DFS recently unveiled a new foster parent recruitment effort. The spirit of the Superhero Sidekick campaign is a call to action to attract people who will ensure the well-being of children in care, exercise sound judgment, honor and support family reunification, and always keep the child's best interest at heart.

If you know a potential "sidekick," feel free to pass along this information.

Or have them call us at 702-455-0181.

Because every superhero needs a sidekick.

Adoption Profile Spotlight:

Jeffrey & Albert

Jeffrey and Albert want a family who will love them unconditionally. They are resilient, and steadily striving to reach their full potential. These guys are closely bonded to one another, as well as their older sister, who is also in foster care. They also have a strong relationship with a former foster mother with whom they hope to maintain contact. They need an adoptive family they can trust to open their heart and home to them.

Click here to go to the DFS adoption profile website to meet Jeffrey and Albert and other local children who need caring, safe homes. In their profiles, learn more about these children who need loving families.

Clark County Department of Family Services | 702-455-5444 | http://tinyurl.com/my66nkm
121 S. Martin Luther King Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV 89106

"Safe Children. Healthy Families. Caring Communities."