“Home is the nicest word there is,” said Laura Ingalls Wilder. For those interested in providing a home for Colorado or refugee minors, Changing the Life of a Child will be presented from 6-7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 17, at the Global Village Museum of Arts and Cultures.
“We are looking for individuals and families who can provide safe and loving homes to children who now reside in shelter-like settings,” says Myranda Horn, recruitment and licensing specialist for Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains (LFSRM). Horn will detail the agency’s efforts along with Marissa Olson, foster family recruiter and training specialist.
LFSRM is a nonprofit agency that was founded in 1948. A focus of the Fort Collins office is securing foster care for unaccompanied refugee minors, often from Central and South America. Unaccompanied refugee minors are youth who have been resettled into the U.S. without a parent or relative to care for them. Olson and Horn will detail the process of foster care, from the experiences of unaccompanied youth to the roles and responsibilities of a foster parent. The presentation will also outline the licensing and training process to become a certified foster parent in Colorado. LFSRM provides individualized support in the areas of a youth’s transition into the home, English language development, school enrollment, medical services and mental healthcare.
“You can get involved and make a difference in the lives of youth all over the world,” Olson says. “You can truly change the life of a child.”
Tickets to the presentation are $5 per person, and reservations are requested at globalvillagemuseum.org. The Global Village Museum is located at 200 W. Mountain Ave., and museum hours are 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For more information and closure dates during the change of exhibits, visit globalvillagemuseum.org or call 970.221.4600.