Respite funds are available to adoptive families to help strengthen your family. This can mean spending some time away from your children and refilling your emotional tank. It can look like you attending parenting trainings so you can improve those skills. Sometimes families use this funding to help their child build self-regulation skills through certain activities. The bottom line is that as adoptive parents, you are eligible for respite funding to keep your family close and connected.
Family Camp
What a perfect way to build and repair those connections within your family. Each summer, Camp Hebron offers family camps just for this purpose. Better yet, it is designed for foster and adoptive families. Check out their website so you can plan ahead for summer 2024.
Retreats
Retreats are a great way to practice self-care. As parents, we all need this from time to time. Respite funding encourages you to take that step as this self-care stuff is challenging for most. I love The Filled Retreat, designed for foster and adoptive moms. Next year it will be held in Lancaster in February, 2024. Feel free to investigate and come up with other retreats that you may be interested in. If you feel like taking a road trip, there is an adoption family retreat in Wisconsin in March, 2024. Check it out here.
Summer Camps
Respite funding supports families while they manage summer with jobs, kids, and so forth. Moreover, summer camp can teach your children important social skills, help them practice established and learn new self-regulation skills, and allows them opportunities to try new things, which positively increases their self-esteem. There are plenty of summer camps throughout the area. As we get closer to summer 2024, feel free to reach out to your Post Perm Coordinator for more ideas and options. Family bonding comes in many different shapes and sizes.
Conferences
Respite funding encourages parents to learn as much as they can about the unique children they have adopted. As we all know, adopted kids are all different. However, there are some common themes they struggle with, hence you need to contend with. Come to one of these amazing conferences or find your own and grow your parenting skills.
- aTTACH Conference : ATTACh is an international coalition dedicated to promoting awareness of trauma and attachment disorders in children and teens, and empowering caregivers and professionals to help them heal.
- NACAC Conference: The North American Council on Adoptable Children offers an amazing opportunity to learn from the leaders in the field of all things adoption. The next conference in JULY 2024 will have a virtual option. *NACAC is now called Families Rising.*
- SWAN Summer Permanency Conference: This is a wonderful event connecting families and professionals across PA. Check out last year’s description here. It’s always at Kalahari, a family-friendly resort.
Caregivers
Do you have a regular babysitter or a family member who is great at watching your kids? Well, use this support system and then pay them with your respite dollars. Post Perm respite is designed to support families by strengthening marital bonds, to get recharged to encourage better parenting, and to even allow one-on-one time in large families by utilizing these caregivers.
Special Needs Events
Do you have a child with Special Needs? Is there a special event designed to meet their needs, perhaps a sensory friendly event that your family wants to go to? Is there an Autism event happening near you? Respite funds can cover the costs of these types of things. Check in with your Post Perm Coordinator for more resources and ideas.
