PORT TOWNSEND — Families will celebrate reunification at the Courthouse Park today.
The Jefferson County Superior Court will host the event from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at the park at 1820 Jefferson St., in Port Townsend with bouncy houses, a relay race, food, a photo booth and face painting. Picnic lunches are encouraged. Speeches by a mother who has been through the system and others also are planned.
”This important event recognizes families who have struggled, but have worked hard to improve their knowledge and life skills and to reunify with the guidance and help of courts, social workers and their communities and families,” said Lorrie Thompson, senior communications officer for the state Administrative Office of the Courts.
”The most important message of Family Reunification Day is to other struggling families — that they can succeed in working through the process to get stronger and to bring their families back together,” she said.
This will be the first unification day in Jefferson County, said Meagan Ryan, Juvenile and Family Court Program assistant, on Friday.
It was organized by Parents for Parents, county juvenile services and Foster Support of Jefferson County. Organizers anticipate that as many as 30 families may show up.
“We hope that families who were reunited in the last five years will come, and maybe bring others who are their support system,” Ryan said.
“It’s celebrating all that hard work they did to get their children back.”
Safe reunification of families is the primary goal of “dependency,” the legal process in which dependent children are taken into the oversight of the state because of deficiencies in care and safety within the home.
More than 8,000 children live in out-of-home care — usually foster care — in Washington state, the state said.
In Jefferson County, about 20 to 30 children are now in dependency status, Ryan said.
The majority of children separated from their parents — about 60 percent — return home after parents make improvements that are guided by child welfare workers and monitored by the courts,
June is Family Reunification Month in Washington, and courts and counties across Washington this summer will recognize parents who worked to bring their families back together after a period of struggling.
At least 16 counties have scheduled celebrations which also recognize the social workers, parent allies, court staff, attorneys and others who support the families through the process of reunifying, according to a state press release.
The statewide recognition of Family Reunification Month is sponsored by the Washington Supreme Court Commission on Children in Foster Care, which is co-chaired by Justice Barbara Madsen and Department of Children, Youth and Families Secretary Ross Hunter.
“We know children do better when they are with their families, but that can require hard work, sacrifice, and persistence,” said Justice Madsen.
“When reunification is the result of those efforts it’s cause for celebration, not just for families, but for the whole community.
“Because healthy families are the backbone of a healthy society, we must commit to supporting and encouraging these families on their journeys.”
