CT’s Department of Children and Families hosted more than 100 foster, adoptive, kin and birth fathers to celebrate their roles as father figures.
On Thursday morning the Department of Children and Families hosted more than 100 foster, adoptive, kin and birth fathers to celebrate their roles as father figures - and play nine holes of golf.
“It’s important to celebrate our dads,” said Tina Jefferson. “Right now in Connecticut, we have a little over 2,500 youth under the age of 18 currently in our foster care system. There’s a need for loving, caring adults to step up.”
According to DCF, each day nearly four children in the state need a foster home.
James Clifford is one dad who has welcomed a child into his home.
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“It’s just important to the children, you’re changing their life,” the North Haven resident says. “Whether it’s one week, two weeks, six months or - like my foster daughter right now - a year.”
He has attended DCF’s annual “Best Dad by Par” event each year.
The event is taking place for the third year and amongst those in attendance was Gov. Ned Lamont, whose sister was adopted.
“What I’m doing here is telling people, we need you,” says Lamont. “These kids need you. You can make a big difference in their lives.”
Hamden native Rodney Moore Jr. is a kinship foster parent to his daughter.
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"It’s been a blessing,” Moore says. “This journey, just taking in a child that’s not necessarily my biological child has just been amazing and we’re glad to call her our daughter now.”
He says it’s important to not only recognize the difficulty of being a father figure, but also the impact.
“It minimizes children getting involved in the criminal justice system,” says Moore. “It increases their ability to accomplish graduation from high school and post-secondary education. And what we know is, it helps them build and cherish better relationships with whomever they come into contact with.”
He says he wants more people to become foster parents.
“If you put the children at the forefront of everything and you think about what’s beneficial for them,” Moore says, “I believe it will help encourage a lot of other parents or potential foster parents to go on this journey.”
