Cartoon character Ziggy is teaming up with the National Foster Parent Association based in Gig Harbor, WA to serve as official “spokes-character” for National Foster Care Month in May.
“Foster care is a great cause for Ziggy,” said Tom Wilson, Ziggy cartoonist and son of Ziggy’s creator. “We’ll all be helping kids by introducing people to the urgent need for caring foster parents in this county. Ziggy will be praising adults who are foster parents, while also encouraging more people to consider it. It’s a wonderful thing for children to feel part of a family.”
Wilson and Ziggy will help promote National Foster Care Month with a series of comic panels recognizing the efforts of foster parents and helping spread awareness about the ever-growing need for foster parents. Wilson will also team up with the Andrews McMeel Foundation to present “Ziggy’s Gift,” a scholarship for a college-bound foster child.
Currently, there are more than 500,000 children are in the foster care system nationwide. According to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, more than 10,800 children were in the Missouri foster care system as of September 30, 2003, the most recent date for which data is available. The average foster child was between 11 and 15 years old, white, and spent an average of 26 months in foster care. Most children were placed in foster care because of parental abuse or neglect.
National Foster Care Month originated in 1988 when the National Foster Parent Association persuaded then Senator Strom Thurmond to introduce a resolution to proclaim May as National Foster Care Month.
In the 1990s, Foster Care Month focused on youth in transition, and under the leadership of the National Foster Care Coalition and Casey Family Programs it became a significant part of the movement that ultimately resulted in the passage of the Chafee Foster Care Independence Act.
Contacts in the 4-state area are:
- Arkansas - (501) 372-5039 - Consevella James, POB 726, Little Rock, AR 72203 or send an email here.
- Kansas - (785) 633-1399 - Frank Naylor, Kansas Resource Parents Association, Inc., 5704 SW Quail Cove Circle, Topeka, KS 66614 or send an email here.
- Missouri - (417) 538-4362 - Jim McKenna, POB 277, Cape Fair, MO 65624, or send an email here.
- Oklahoma - (405) 202-3644 - Foster Care Association of Oklahoma, Inc., Rt. 2, Box 204, Wellston, OK 74881 or send an email here.
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