First Lady Of Texas Touts 'Network Of Nurture Initiative' That Helps Foster Families

AUSTIN, TX — The First Lady of Texas, Cecilia Abbott, on Monday touted the recently unveiled Network of Nurture Initiative — a cooperative effort among foster child care placement providers — as a positive step in addressing the need for babysitting and short-term child care among foster parents.

The First Lady signed her name to a letter praising the effort along with Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Hank Whitman. The letter was sent to foster child care placement providers across Texas. The initiative has created a joint application and training program that satisfies the requirements for babysitting providers of multiple child placement agencies in Central Texas, officials explained.

The regional community solution streamlines the process and provides one training session for multiple child placement agencies for those individuals who want to help families by providing short-term child care, officials said.

“Providing the support that foster and adoptive families need is a bigger job than state government can do alone,” the letter reads in part. “We believe this collaboration has the potential to provide much-needed support to thousands of foster and adoptive families in Central Texas. But, the need for this kind of support is not unique to Central Texas. We want to see similar collaborations happening all over the state.”

The initiative comes at a time when Texas lawmakers are attempting to strengthen the states foster care system. But as the letter's signatories agreed in their letter, that task "...is a bigger job than state government can do alone."

To assist, Network of Nurture provides assistance, understanding and encouragement to those needing the services within their own communities. The help takes various forms, including giving foster parents a break from taking care of their children for a night out with the spouse or running household errands.

Currently, foster families have very limited child care options because agencies only allow these families to use babysitters and child care providers certified with that specific family's respective agency, officials explained.

"While safety of the child is the most important factor, the magnitude of the issue compelled us to consider other safe, reliable and trustworthy short-term child care options for these families," the letter reads.

"We are very encouraged by a new initiative that Fostering Hope Austin (FHA) and the Heart Gallery of Central Texas in Region 7 have launched to address the need for short-term child care," Abbott and Whitman wrote.

While praising the program, officials expressed it might be expanded to more parts of Texas: "We believe this collaboration has the potential to provide much needed support to thousands of foster and adoptive families in Central Texas. But, the need for this kind of support is not unique to Central Texas. We want to see similar collaborations happening all over the state."

To read the full letter click here.