October 10th Is 6th Annual PJs & Eggs!

Once again, Hickman’s Family Farms will partner with some of the favorite breakfast restaurants around the Valley to celebrate PJs & Eggs. The sixth annual event will be held on “World Egg Day”: Friday, October 10, 2014. The “breakfast for dinner” will begin at 5:00 p.m. at participating locations to benefit Arizona’s Children Association (AzCA) foster care programs statewide.

Customers who have breakfast for dinner at each participating restaurant on October 10 are invited to wear their pajamas and asked to bring a new pair (any size for kids ages newborn to18) to be donated to children in the AzCA’s foster care programs. In return, each customer will receive a certificate for a free dozen Hickman’s eggs. Some participating restaurants will also donate a portion of the proceeds from the evening to AzCA.

The current list of participating restaurants includes: Café 25:35 (Buckeye); Chaffin’s Diner (Tucson); Chicken Noodle Café (Wickenburg); Kiss the Cook (Glendale); Millstone Café (Buckeye); OverEasy (Phoenix - Arcadia); Scramble (North Phoenix); Sue Ann’s Apple Pan (Prescott); and TJ’s Homestyle Restaurant (Avondale). Pajama collection will begin in September at participating locations and will continue through the night of the event. Donations received after October 10 will be forwarded to AzCA.

“The event is in its sixth year with continued support from many of the locations that have participated since the beginning,” says Sharman Hickman of Hickman’s Family Farms. “PJs & Eggs offers a unique opportunity to share in an event that is fun and extremely useful. It’s hands-on help for our local communities’ kids in foster care. Participants know that whatever donations they make go directly to local children in need. Our goal this year is to reach 6,000 total pairs of pajamas donated since the start of this event.”

AzCA’s adoption and foster care programs, offered throughout the state, are vital resources for matching children in need with safe and loving families. There are more than 14,000 children in Arizona’s foster care system ranging from in age from newborn to 18 years old.

For additional information about PJs & Eggs, visit www.pjsandeggsaz.com. For more information about AzCA, including becoming a foster or adoptive parent, visit www.arizonaschildren.org.

 

Arizona’s Children Association kinship service providers invited to present at the CWLA National Conference

As kinship care continues to be a primary and valuable option for children who cannot live with their parents, emphasis on kinship care policy, practice, and research is necessary to continue to enhance services and supports for kinship caregivers and families.  The Child Welfare League of America’s (CWLA) National Kinship Care Conference is being held this week in Louisiana to highlight the field’s collective knowledge of best practice, policy, program and service development for kinship caregivers, and identifies areas for further research.

Arizona’s Children Association kinship service providers were one of only seven kinship programs throughout the nation invited by CWLA to present at this national conference.  Arizona’s Children Association (AzCA) has developed a strong reputation nationwide as one of the key providers of valuable kinship services, in large part due to AzCA being one of few agencies chosen to receive a three-year federal grant in 2012. Arizona Kinship Support Services (AKSS) is a program of AzCA in partnership with the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS), Administration for Children Youth and Families (ACYF), and DES Family Assistance Administration (FAA). The overall goal of the federal grant is to improve services for children being raised by kinship care providers by assisting caregivers in meeting their family’s needs, promoting public/private partnerships to meet those needs and increase safety, permanency and well-being of the children in kinship care. AzCA kinship service providers will present on the progress and impact of services since the beginning of the grant period.

To learn more about AzCA’s kinship support services, visit us online at www.arizonakinship.org.