News & Library

Keep up with the latest news about Firefly Children and Family Alliance, from recent announcements to new programs and services

Kris’ Corner – Meeting Sensory Needs

As you may (or may not if this world of foster care is new to you): many children from hard places have sensory needs above…and possibly beyond…those of the general public. Now, I have to admit…once I began looking into my child’s sensory needs, I realized that I had...

Kris’ Corner – Moving with a Child From Hard Places

Moving from one home to another is a highly stressful event, in and of itself. Whatever it looks like…down-sizing, up-sizing, equilateral move…it’s going from one home to another and it’s stressful. Always stressful. And no matter how you slice it, there’s a lot of...

Kris’ Corner – Getting the Access Pass

For many foster parents, finding affordable activities for the kids can sometimes be a challenge. Now, it might be true that the kids may simply want to park themselves in front of a TV, and on occasion that might be ok, but for those times when it’s not, may I...

Kris’ Corner – Medicaid Waiver

At my house, we are always looking for resources we can tap into to help make our foster care, adoption or special needs journey an easier one. And one thing I’d like to discuss today is the Medicaid Waiver. Now…many people are under the impression that Medicaid...

Kris’ Corner – Special Needs Parenting

True confession: my child having special needs is the most isolating thing I’ve ever experienced. Granted, foster care, in and of itself is similar in that lots of people don’t understand it or necessarily even understand why you would choose to foster. But later on...

Kris’ Corner – Navigating Unknown Family Medical History

Today I’d like to share a little bit of what I learned recently about helping children navigate unknown, or little known, medical history…. because they deserve to have access to any information they possibly can, and also how scary and frustrating it must be for them...

Kris’ Corner – Protecting the Privacy of Kids in Care

So…I follow many different people and organizations on social media, most of which address topics related to foster care and adoption. Probably no real shock there. One in particular creates memes specific to foster care. And it shared a meme the other day which read,...

Kris’ Corner – Foster Parents Are Not Paid

Now, some of you might be thinking about the fact that it used to be (several decades ago) foster parents could just stay at home and take care of children and receive their per diems, which also covered their own living expenses; that’s often the reason why you’d...

Kris’ Corner – Aging Out Without Support

Every year hundreds of thousands of teens age out of the foster care system. So how and why does this happen? To be honest, there’s not a clear, concise or easy answer for why so many children age out of care, but here are just a few. Sometimes the cases begin when a...

Kris’ Corner – How Does a Family Come Under Investigation?

One question I sometimes get is: “How do kids come into care?” In other words, “How does Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) know when to check in on a family?” Well, there are different ways, such as when police are called to a home (which may be about drugs,...