UPDATED!! 

This section will provide different links to press releases from DCF/DYFS, important newspaper articles pertaining to foster care and adoption, and any other information that we may think that you will find useful and informative.

FAFS Selected as State Project by the NJ State Federation of Women's Clubs - Junior Membership

This new affiliation is expected to aid several of FAFS' programs that do not receive funding from the state.  This includes FAFS' backpack and private scholarship programs as well as Fostering Wishes for Children, which is a mini-grant program designed to provide children in foster care with things that many foster parents are unable to supply (i.e., art/music lessons, camp registration, etc.)  To read the full Release from Mary Jane Awarachow, FAFS' Executive Director, click here.

HEART GALLERY Article:  Little Angel Finds Adoption Heavenly    wonderful story of adoption of one little girl that was featured in the Heart Gallery, as printed in The Asbury Park Press on June 6, 2008.

Kimberly Ricketts as Next Commissioner of the Dept of Children and Families     Governor Release dated 6/13/08

The Kinship Caregiver Support Act (S. 661/HR.2188) 

National Foster Care Month is May!      (this will take you to the National Foster Care Month website for more info)

New Director for the Division of Youth and Family Services Announced        Press Release dated 3/27/08

NJ Adoptees Access Bill Update

More than 100,000 individuals who were born and adopted in NJ do not have access to their medical histories because they don't know who their birth parents are.  The NJ Senate passed a bill recently that would give adopted adults the right to access their own birth records; the bill now heads to the Assembly for a vote.  Without access to birth records, adoptees have no knowledge of their heredity or medical histories.  This lack of knowledge has a lasting physical and emotional impact.  Adoptees are denied the right to full knowledge of their cultural and genetic identify, as well as the potential health risks against which they otherwise could take preventative medical or lifestyle choice measures. 

To read the entire article in the Bergen Record. click here.

To read the article written by Pam Hasewaga of NJArch, click here.  NOTE:  The NJ Bill is the only state legislation that we are aware of that would allow access to parents of an adopted minor.

To read article entitled "Ground Breaking Study Recommends Adoptees Get Access to Their Birth Records" from Concerned Persons for Adoption on this issue, click here

Governor Names Acting Commissioner of Department of Children and Families     Press Release date 3/12/08

Asbury Park Press Announces Daily Feature of HG (Heart Gallery) Children, 3/2/08    wonderful story of adoption!