Boys & Girls Village Hosts Foster Care Appreciation Dinner

From BGV: Boys& Girls Village (BGV), a statewide leader in providing behavioral health treatment, permanency planning, and educational services to Connecticut’s most vulnerable youth and their families, held its Foster Care Appreciation Dinner at the Race Brook Country Club in Orange on Thursday evening, May 11. The annual event, which occurs during National Foster Care Month, honors the foster and adoptive families, past and present, who have welcomed children into their homes through the Boys & Girls Village Therapeutic Foster Care program. About 225 people attended the dinner, held at the Race Brook Country Club in Orange.

Boys & Girls Village’s Therapeutic Foster Care program has experienced remarkable growth over the past few years. It currently serves 90 children in the Greater Bridgeport, New Haven, and Waterbury areas, matching qualified foster parents with children in the custody of the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF).

“We consider our foster parents some of most valuable members of our extended BGV team, providing loving and supportive homes for some of the state’s most vulnerable children,” said Dr. Steven Kant, President and CEO of Boys & Girls Village. “Through our strong partnership with the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, we count on these hard-working and caring families to provide many at-risk children with a safe and stable home environment.”

Reserved table at BGV's Foster Care Dinner

BGV’s Therapeutic Foster Care program provides training, education, and access to community resources that support foster parents as they offer safe and loving homes for children. Finding permanent homes for children, whether with relatives or with committed adults in foster care, has been central to Boys & Girls Village’s mission of helping at-risk children succeed in life.

Sixto Cancel, who spent his childhood in foster homes in Connecticut, was the dinner’s keynote speaker. The 24-year-old Cancel is the founder and CEO of “Think of Us,” an online life-coaching platform that supports youth in foster care during the transition into adulthood.

Photo courtesy of BGV (Reserved table at BGV's Foster Care Dinner)