February 2024 | Volume 1 | Issue 2 | www.embrella.org
embrella is Set to Celebrate 50 years of Service!
We hope you’ve been enjoying the posts across our social media platforms showcasing historical photos and stories of our founding members, families, youth, and amazing staff members! We have a lot more in store for the coming months and we can’t wait to share more pictures, stories, and ways for you to celebrate with us!
Check out our updated 50th Anniversary logo, and ways to follow us on social media, at the end of this newsletter! We invite you to share your memories, stories, or milestones using #embrella50 and join us in celebrating the remarkable impact of the past 50 years!
From the CEO
2024 is a big year for embrella as we mark our 50th Anniversary! As an organization we have grown considerably and gone through numerous changes throughout the years, but our core focus of supporting families involved with the child welfare system remains central to our mission.
We often share the story of our founding in 1974, when three foster parents sat around a kitchen table discussing how much more work needed to be done for children in care. Two of those foster parents, Hattie Talley and Bernie Dondiego have passed, but the third, Sue Dondiego, celebrates her 90th Birthday this month and continues to sit on the embrella Board of Directors, actively engaged in pushing for positive advances in the foster care system, not only in NJ but nationwide.
There is so much to celebrate this year! Keep an eye on our social media pages for more information on upcoming family events and our special fundraiser featuring beautiful music on Thursday, October 10, 2024, at The Whitechapel Projects in Long Branch. We look forward to having you join us as we honor this milestone.
We have also recently made exciting changes to our Scholarship Department, including the introduction of two Director of Scholarship Program positions. I am happy to share that Ebony Lenard and Anika Beckford have advanced into these leadership roles!
Ebony has been with embrella for 13 years, most recently as the manager of the Scholarship Department, running our NJ Foster Care Scholars Program (NJFC). In her new position as director, she will continue to administer the NJFC Program as well as the Gap Housing Program, Office of Family Voice Programs, and our private educational support grants.
Anika has been a PACES Coach with embrella for two years and has easily transitioned into leading the PACES Program as director, as well as overseeing our private scholarship and grants program. We look forward to their continued leadership of our Scholarship Department!
embrella’s Elves Make the Holidays Shine!
With the help of local donors, we were fortunate to offer three pop-up shop locations to distribute gifts to caregivers for the children and youth in their care.
We would like to give an enormous THANK YOU to the New Jersey Police Benevolent Association for collecting thousands of new toys for our families again this December.
Spearheaded by Officers Joe Dudley of Dunellen Borough and Vittorio Spadea of Somerville, the PBA’s annual toy drive has grown exponentially, and now provides toys not only through our Princeton office but at pop-up toy distributions at partner locations across the state.
In addition to the generosity of law enforcement officers from municipalities statewide, this year the Hess Corporation made a special gift of dozens ofthe 2023 Hess Police Truck.
213 families, caring for 613 children and youth, were able to select from toys, books, games, sports equipment and more to help make the holidays special. We were also able to give toys and gifts to13 local DCF offices for them to distribute to families that were not able to attend one of the pop-up shops.
Thank you, NJ PBA, Hess Corporation, and all of our individual donors that helped make the season a little brighter for the children and youth in our communities.
Watch the video below for a peek of our elves hard at work!
Pathways to Academic and Career Exploration to Success
The PACES program, included within our Scholarship Department, provides coaching for foster youth in decision making processes, soft skill development, and direct assistance during college and employment application processes.
embrella’s PACES program serves Region 2 of New Jersey, which includes Hunterdon, Middlesex, Somerset, Mercer, Monmouth, and Ocean Counties. Additional organizations serve Regions 1 and 3 of NJ.
As this dedicated team continues to assist students with post-secondary exploration and workforce preparation, they recognize the importance ofnavigating the financial aspect of a student’s educational journey.
With FAFSA season upon us, PACES Coaches are actively supporting students in completing their applications and meeting financial aid requirements.
If you, or any students you know, have questions regarding the financial aid or college enrollment process, please don’t hesitate to reach out to one of our Scholarship staff members.
We invite you to join us for one of our upcoming webinars where we will delve into these topics in more detail.
Save the Date for our 50th Birthday Bash!
Our year-long celebration of 50 years of community and connection will culminate on Thursday, October 10, 2024 with an exciting evening at The Whitechapel Projects restaurant and brewery in Long Branch, NJ.
Plan to join us for cocktails, terrific food, a dueling piano concert, one-of-a-kind auction, performances featuring embrella youth, and more!
Sponsorship packages are available, please contact Development@embrella.org for more information and stay tuned for your invitation!
Connect With Us for Support and Resources!
If you’re a caregiver that hasn’t attended one of our support meetings, consider joining the next one! Our Family Support Advocates hold monthly meetings for caregivers, known as Connecting Families Meetings, for each CP&P area of New Jersey to provide a platform where our community can come together in a safe space to connect, network, and obtain further education and training on child welfare. We offer these meetings both virtually and in person to help meet the needs ofcaregivers’ busy schedules.
Family Support Advocates are currently working with CP&P Area staff to host town hall style meetings to engage with caregivers in their specific areas. These meetings may be held in conjunction with embrella’s Connecting Families Meetings or as a separate CP&P meeting. All caregivers should be receiving notices via email or mail of these upcoming meetings.
The purpose of the town hall meetings is toestablish an open space for caregivers to share successes, challenges, and concerns directly with higher level CP&P Area staff in order to track and address change needed with the county, area, and/or state.
We encourage all caregivers to participate in these specialized meetings. If you have not received notices, or are interested in learning more about these meetings, please reach out to your area Family Support Advocate. You can also view upcoming support meetings, trainings, and webinars on our Google calendar by clicking here.
Who Tells Your Story?
Our mission at embrella is to embrace, support, and advocate for children, youth, and families within the child welfare community. We see ourselves as the storytellers of New Jersey’s foster, adoptive, and kinship families. Our Communications Department strives to ensure that your voice is being heard.
The Future is Family is a video series devoted to telling the powerful stories of our youth and families that are making efforts to change the landscape of their lives everyday.
Meet the Boys, An Adoption Story is a special 2 part series that has garnered over 1 million views! This courageous family let us into their world and trusted us to share their emotional journey with you. We recently caught up with them and were able to witness how the boys are thriving in the next stage of their lives. We continue their adventure with Meet the Boys, An Adoption Story – Part 2.
We have also been fortunate to meet Sophia, a young adult that became increasingly aware of how experiences of neglect and abuse at a young age led to a creative outlet of storytelling through illustration. Sophia – Part 1 and Sophia – Part 2 are available to view in our Future is Family collection.
Don’t miss our most recent installment, Julianna – Foster Care, Adoption, and Beyond, where we learn how Julianna entered an exciting, yet foreign, world, and found ways to honor her past and culture.
We invite you to visit our YouTube channel for more video content, as well as our podcast, What The Foster?
If you are interested in sharing your story with embrella, and possibly being contacted about being featured, please visit this link to submit your information.
You can find our social media links at the bottom of this newsletter. Follow us for more content and to see whose story we’re telling next!
Behind the Scenes at embrella: Communication Staff Spotlight –
Emily Clayton
It is easy to forget about the work that takes place behind the scenes at a nonprofit organization. The Communications Department at embrella is “small but mighty,” – and is directly involved in the organization’s brand awareness, content creation, and the promotion of an enhanced understanding of foster and kinship care.
An important role within the Communications Department is to organize and design visual content to help deliver embrella’s message in the most impactful, thoughtful way. This role is carried out by our Graphic Designer, Emily Clayton.
Emily is originally from Greenfield, Massachusetts and attended Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts. As a freshman, Emily attended beginner graphic design, illustration, and web design classes and was a part of the graphic design club on campus. During this time, she realized that her interest and passion for graphic design could become a career and focused on these subjects to earn her bachelor’s degree in graphic design with a minor in marketing.
Emily is approaching her 4th anniversary at embrella and has thoroughly enjoyed being part of such a collaborative, team-oriented department and organization. Prior to joining the embrella team, Emily was a junior graphic designer at a vitamin and sports supplements company in Manasquan, New Jersey.
Her work can be found in all areas of the organization, including our social media platforms, website, and print media that is distributed to our youth, families, partners, and donors. Some of her favorite design projects include making logos for educational events, coloring booklets for children and youth at family events, and holiday themed e-blast campaigns using the company’s otter mascot.
One of Emily’s long-term goals is to expand her design skill toolbox and become more comfortable in other creative areas, including web design and coding, video editing, and writing.
An amazing example of Emily’s creativity can be seen throughout the pages of our PEACE Initiative Booklet.
Our Strength, Rooted in Public Policy
embrella is a grassroots nonprofit that began with three resource parents sitting at a kitchen table in Middlesex County in the early 1970s. Hattie Talley (pictured above in front of the NJ State House), along with Bernie and Sue Dondiego, embarked on an incredulous journey to support and advocate for all resource and kinship families throughout New Jersey.
Beginning as The New Jersey Foster Parent Association (NJFPA), to our transition to Foster and Adoptive Family Services (FAFS), we rebranded as embrella to represent our mission of embracing families while providing an umbrella of services to those we serve.
Over the years, Hattie, Bernie, and Sue dedicated their lives to supporting children and families by diligently fighting for policy and legislative change from the New Jersey State House to Washington, DC.
Even though Hattie and Bernie are no longer with us, Sue continues their vision and remains an active Board Member with embrella. Each of our founders have spent their lives advocating and fighting for our community of resource caregivers and children in care and we are humbled to continue their work 50 years later.
Our active public policy committee consisting of board of director members and embrella staff, strives to create positive systematic change by regularly contacting state representatives and attending national conferences, such as the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) annual conference and their Hill Day.
An incredible win for our community is the recent passing of the New Jersey Siblings’ Bill of Rights, drafted by the New Jersey Youth Council, which consists of youth previously and currently in care. This legislation provides substantial rights to siblings in care that have never been established prior, leading to more stability and better outcomes for siblings who are in care.
We invite you to visit our legislative page which includes current wins, legislative initiatives, as well as bills to follow that affect our community. Here, you can learn not only about what is going on with current legislation, but also ways to ensure your voice is heard.
We are currently working on template letters to coincide with bills to further aid anyone who would like to support positive change in our community.
Save the Date for our 50th Birthday Bash!
Our year-long celebration of 50 years of community and connection will culminate on Thursday, October 10, 2024 with an exciting evening at The Whitechapel Projects restaurant and brewery in Long Branch, NJ.
Plan to join us for cocktails, terrific food, a dueling piano concert, one-of-a-kind auction, performances featuring embrella youth, and more!
Sponsorship packages are available, please contact Development@embrella.org for more information and stay tuned for your invitation!
Department of Children and Families – DCF Corner
Stay tuned as we include articles and information from DCF in the coming issues of Otterly embrella!
Please save the date for the 3rd Annual Resource Parent Symposium hosted by the Office ofResource Families in New Brunswick, NJ on Saturday, April 20, 2024.
Training hours will be offered to those in attendance.
PEACE Events Met With Success
An idea that began with two staff members collaborating on ways to enhance a training they attended blossomed into the first year-long series of educational and community events at embrella.
The Power to End Adverse Childhood Experiences (P.E.A.C.E.) Initiative is an employee led series of education workshops and community events intended to raise awareness about the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) while also building Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs).
The goal of the P.E.A.C.E. Initiative is to create a shared child welfare community of healers, leaders, and future change makers. P.E.A.C.E. is open to all resource, adoptive, and kinship families as well as those involved with the child welfare system in the state ofNew Jersey.
With the launch of our inaugural workshop in October, over a hundred adults have participated in the three educational events offered with future educational opportunities opening in April and May.
Family events have filled up fast with our “You’re a Star” event at the planetarium at the NJ State Museum currently having a waitlist and over one hundred family members registered. Registration for “Magic Under the Sea” at the Camden Aquarium will open in early March.
This one-year effort will culminate in a day of celebration at the P.E.A.C.E. Summit on June 1st. Have questions, want to find out more, or get involved?
For more information or tosee the list of upcoming events, please visit the PEACE Initiative page, call Michele Rodriguez at 609-412-2698, or email us at PEACE@embrella.org.
Click on the video link below to learn more about why Positive Childhood Experiences are so important in raising our next generation of leaders, healers, and future change makers.
¡embrella habla Español!
¡Lázaro y Diana son nuestros dos Defensores de Apoyo Familiar que son bilingües y hablan español! No dude en comunicarse con ellos si necesita ayuda.
Porque sabemos lo importante que es hablar en nuestro propio idioma, embrella quiere saber cómo podemos conectarnos mejor con usted. Esté atento a nuestra encuesta enviada por correo. ¡Sus respuestas son muy importantes para embrella!
Tenemos una reunión virtual el 21 de marzo de 7 a 9 p.m. Habrá reuniones adicionales en Mayo, Agosto y Noviembre. Si tiene alguna pregunta o inquietud en relación con temas sobre los cuidadores que hablan español, comuníquese con nosotros a Support@embrella.org.
Welcome to the Team!
As we make our way through the start of 2024, we are excited to announce the addition of 4 new staff members to the embrella family.
Please join us in extending a warm welcome to our two Region 2 PACES Coaches, Julie Dul and Jeff Augustus. Julie and Jeff bring with them unique perspectives and rich professional experiences that we believe will greatly enhance the Scholarship Department and ultimately benefit our youth. We are excited to have them as valuable additions to the Scholarship team.
Our Family Support Department welcomes Family Support Advocates, Chanel Dupree and Diana Burgos.
Chanel will be covering our Essex County area while Diana has taken over for Morris, Sussex, and Passaic Counties. We are excited to provide stronger support in these areas and to see our team grow. If you have not met and connected with your Family Support Advocate, you can find their contact information here.
Board Spotlight:
Meet Kami!
Kamara (Kami) Russo began serving on the embrella Board of Directors in October 2022. She is a member of the Finance and Fund Development Committees, while also serving as the Co-Chair of the embrella Ambassador Council.
The embrella Ambassador Council is an energetic group ofNJ and NY professionals dedicated to advancing our mission to embrace foster children and their families through fundraising, volunteering, and peer-to-peer networking.
When she’s not volunteering and leading embrella, Kamara is the Business Manager at the Rutger’s Cancer Institute of NJ, which is a cause near and dear to her heart as she entered foster care after her mother passed away from cancer. She also serves on the Board of Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) ofNJ. She enjoys her volunteer efforts with CASA as they work to pass statewide policies to improve the child welfare system in NJ.
Kami’s hobbies include spending time with her husband and dog as well as her love of travel, dance, and singing. She has sung in choirs since she was young, and this passion has brought her to the stages ofCarnegie Hall and American Idol! She knows first-hand that there is power in song through therapy, healing, and bringing communities together through message and harmony.
Kami shares that she enjoys serving with fellow embrella board members who have become friends. She feels that the embrella board is special and feels like one big family supporting the common goal of making a difference in foster and kinship care!
And it is an exciting time to be Co-Chair of the embrella Ambassador Council as the organization celebrates its 50th Anniversary. She and fellow Ambassadors are working together to connect new people to the embrella community and reconnect with supporters to fundraise for future endeavors.
Kami’s energy, enthusiasm, and passion for embrella and its mission is overflowing as she hopes to inspire more people to join her in the support of embrella!
If you would like more information on becoming an embrella board member, Ambassador Council member, or would like to donate to support our mission, please click the corresponding links.
Watch the video below to hear Kami’s story as she reflects on discovering embrella and becoming part of our mission.
