FAMilies Festival Will Celebrate Multiculturalism In Foster Care & Adoption

MIDDLEBURY — The first Foster Adoptive Mission (FAM) FAMilies Festival: A Celebration of Multiculturalism in Foster Care and Adoption will be held Saturday, April 25 (rain date April 26), from noon to 6 pm, at Quassy Amusement Park.

FAM and Quassy are co-sponsoring this first fair, which the organizations are hoping will become an annual event open to the general public featuring music, dance, costumes and food from different ethnic and cultural traditions. There is no charge for the event festivities, but Quassy will be holding its carload special that day. For $30 at the parking lot, everyone in the car (up to a maximum of ten people) will receive an all-day ride pass. This includes parking.

The festival is FAM’s kick-off event for National Foster Care Month, which begins May 1. Information on becoming a foster or adoptive parent will be available at the FAM booth during the event.

The goal of the festival is to help reconnect children and teens with their cultural traditions, including music, dance and cuisine they may yearn for or have not had the opportunity to experience. Children and youth in out-of-home care are often separated from their cultures as well as from their families of origin. These children may lose touch with what it means to be a part of their culture, tradition or even race.

Research from the Casey Foundation, recognizing that these youth are at risk for identifying with a culture of foster care rather than their ethnic or racial culture, recommends that these youth be given ample opportunities to explore their ethnicity in order to develop a positive and healthy racial and ethnic identity.

The FAMilies Festival will provide a unique opportunity for Connecticut’s foster and adoptive families to educate themselves about different ethnic traditions.

All fairgoers will be able to taste foods from cultures unfamiliar to them and ask experts how to prepare them. Musical groups will play ethnic music and provide information to families about these offerings. Dance troupes will offer traditional dance and movement that may be foreign to attendees, and will also provide information about how families can get kids involved in the traditions of their birth culture.

Teen volunteers dressed in authentic ethnic garb will act as “ambassadors” from many different cultures and information will be provided to attendees about the different cultures. Hair care demonstrations will occur at scheduled times during the day with question and answer sessions to follow.

FAM is a federally funded, not-for-profit community collaborative comprising community leaders, nonprofit child welfare agencies, town and state agencies, local corporations, and individual foster and adoptive parents. Its dual mission is to find safe, nurturing homes for children and youth in the Connecticut foster care system and provide support for families after placement.

 FAM staff provides information and assistance to prospective foster and adoptive families by walking them through the maze of child welfare providers servicing the northwest region of Connecticut (DCF and private) and assist interested parties in identifying an agency that might fit their needs. There is no cost or obligation. FAM’s costs are covered by a federal grant.

For more information about FAM’s services and events contact Deb Kelleher at FAM at 203-706-0101 or visit FosterAdoptiveMission.org and click on Contact Us.

Quassy Amusement Park is on Route 64 in Middlebury.