Spring Fling 2023 served 125 children with 65 families.
A Beautiful Day Supporting Ventura County Foster/Resource Families, Kinship Families, Adoptive Families, and Bio-families Currently Working in Programs with Kids & Families Together
On Saturday, April 1st, Kids & Families Together’s Heart 2 Heart Program, hosted their Spring Fling Gift~Away for Ventura County foster/resource, kinship, adopted and birth families who are currently being served in K&FT programs. This annual event has always been a kick-off to Spring, a season of growth and renewal.
Spring Fling 2023 served 125 children with 65 families. This year, we saw the return of the annual “Egg Hunt” for the first time since the pandemic! Children and families were provided with such items as: gift cards, springtime themed baskets, teen bags, Summertime toys, art supplies, clothing, personal care items, along with household, and cleaning supplies.
The event featured music, free face painting, games, and pictures with the Spring Bunny! The weather was perfect for the event, hosted at a park in Oxnard, and with all the recent rain, everything was so green and lush. It was wonderful to see so many smiling faces!
Kids & Families Together (K&FT) was founded in 2000 by David and Faith Friedlander. David and Faith met with Ventura County Children and Family Services to see how K&FT could fill the gaps and provide services to populations that were overlooked. Faith, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and also an adoptee herself, had a special place in her heart for and expertise on adoptive children and families. Faith began to develop programs to support foster and adoptive parents. Along with that, K&FT became the first organization in the county to provide specialized education and support services to informal kinship caregivers. Informal kinship caregivers are people who are taking care of relative children. These families are considered “informal” because they are not involved with the child welfare system which excludes them from many of the available resources.
Since 2000, K&FT has developed many other programs to meet the needs of all families that are somehow involved with the child welfare system including birth parents who are trying to reunify with their children, foster families, children in foster care, adoptive families, kinship caregivers, and legal guardians. K&FT provides mental health services that focus on healing children who have experienced trauma and strengthening their attachment with their parent/caregiver.
It takes a loving village to put on events like this! K&FT is grateful to Spring Fling 2023 partners, event sponsors and our amazing volunteers that come from all over Ventura County to support K&FT families.
Thanks goes to: The Gene Haas Foundation, Yardi Systems, James Storehouse, St. Jude’s Catholic Church with Loaves & Fishes, Ventura County Forty Leaguers, Betty Belts, SoCal Helpful Honda, Meathead Movers, Lifeline Outreach Resource Center, Wings to Grow from Newbury Park High School, Oxnard Key Club,
Individual Volunteers: Dina, Kelechi, Maya, Taylor, Quetellen, Kaleigh, Stacey, Lesley, Aurora, Veronica, Roxanne, Keira, Aliayah, Isa, Melinda, the McKee and Futvoye families.
