2025 SESSION

INTRODUCED

25105208D

SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 294

Offered January 20, 2025

Commending Children's Home Society of Virginia.

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Patron—Jordan

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WHEREAS, Children's Home Society of Virginia celebrates 125 years of serving the children of the Commonwealth in 2025; and

WHEREAS, Children's Home Society of Virginia is a private, nonprofit, nonsectarian, full-service, licensed child-placing agency that serves the entire Commonwealth and whose mission is to create strong, permanent families and lifelong relationships for Virginia's children and youth; and

WHEREAS, Children's Home Society of Virginia began in 1899 when a group of concerned citizens, deeply troubled by the care offered in orphanages, banded together to help abandoned and neglected children; and

WHEREAS, the General Assembly chartered Children's Home Society of Virginia on January 30, 1900, with John Garland Pollard, who became the governor of the Commonwealth in 1930, as a founding member of the organization's board of directors; and

WHEREAS, since 1900, the staff of Children's Home Society of Virginia has worked diligently to serve more than 17,000 children, youth, and families; and

WHEREAS, in 1998, Children's Home Society of Virginia began partnering with local departments of social service agencies to help facilitate the placement of hundreds of children and youth from the foster care system into adoptive homes; and

WHEREAS, in 2007, Children's Home Society of Virginia began serving as a Wendy's Wonderful Kids site, a program of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, to recruit adoptive parents for children who have waited extended periods in foster care to be placed into adoptive families; and

WHEREAS, Children's Home Society of Virginia not only finds permanent homes for children of all ages, but also offers a lifetime of post-adoption supports to the Commonwealth's adoptive families and adoptees, including parent coaching, family support and engagement activities, respite care, and family search and reunion services; and

WHEREAS, in 2016, Children's Home Society of Virginia began partnering with the Better Housing Coalition to create My Path Forward, a signature program that provides housing and a myriad of best practice supports that equip youth who are transitioning from foster care with the skills and resources they need to become independent, productive members of society; and

WHEREAS, in 2024, Children's Home Society of Virginia began providing Family Check-Up, an evidence-based program approved by the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse, to provide prevention services to adoptive families who are at risk of disruption; and

WHEREAS, Children's Home Society of Virginia is a permanency-driven organization that embraces the values of top-quality service delivery, working with integrity, maximizing collaborations, demonstrating compassion, and embracing equity and inclusion in all that it does to promote permanency for children and youth; and

WHEREAS, for 125 years, Children's Home Society of Virginia has worked to provide children, from newborns to children with special needs, to older youth who have aged out of foster care, with the healthy, supportive, and permanent adult relationships they need to thrive; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the Senate, the House of Delegates concurring, That the General Assembly hereby commend Children's Home Society of Virginia on the occasion of its 125th anniversary; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the Senate prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to the board of directors of Children's Home Society of Virginia as an expression of the General Assembly's respect, admiration, and gratitude for the organization's work to create permanency for the Commonwealth's children and youth.