Take time to acknowledge two of Georgia's most vulnerable populations

Every May, the Department of Human Services pulls a double duty in acknowledging Georgia's oldest residents and youngest in foster care. This month provides an opportunity to reinforce our commitment to meeting the growing needs of Georgia’s most vulnerable. 

This year’s theme for Older Americans Month is “Make Your Mark.” This theme celebrates the countless contributions that older adults make to communities nationwide and how everyone can come together in support of older generations continuing to make their mark. During this time, we are encouraging older Georgians to share their time, experience and talents that can benefit family, peers and neighbors every day. 

Older Americans Month: Around the nation, older adults make their marks every day as volunteers, employees, employers, parents, grandparents, mentors and advocates. They offer their time, talents and experience to the benefit of our communities. 

For 57 years, Older Americans Month (OAM) has been a special time to recognize these contributions. Led by the Administration for Community Living each May, OAM also provides resources to help older Americans stay healthy and independent, and materials to help communities support and celebrate their residents. 

This year’s OAM theme, Make Your Mark, highlights older adults’ unique and lasting contributions to their communities and how everyone can benefit.  

Communities that support and include all their members are stronger! Please join the Department of Human Services in strengthening our community. For action ideas, visit https://aging.georgia.gov/get-involved/volunteer-my-community. Know an older adult in your community or someone making an impact in the aging community? Share yours or their stories by messaging our Facebook page.

Georgia’s foster care system should be more of a support for families and less of a substitute for them. This year's theme, “Foster Care as a Support to Families, not a Substitute for Parent,” highlights the concept of supportive relationships as a critical factor in achieving family stability, promoting individual success and maintaining family connections. 

National Foster Care Month: The Georgia Division of Family & Children Services joins the nation in celebrating National Foster Care Month. Since 1988, National Foster Care Month has served as a time to celebrate foster parents and join forces with our communities and partners to recruit new ones. We also use this time to spread awareness about the urgent need for foster parents across the state. 

This year, Georgia adopted the theme "Foster Care as a Support to Families, not a Substitute for Parents" for the second year in a row. At such a critical time in our nation, we would like to bring a special focus to the pivotal role foster systems can play in helping put families back together. With over 12,000 children in care in Georgia, we understand that we cannot do this work alone. We want to ensure that the needs of each child are met through healthy families and support systems. 

As COVID-19 impacts our world, here are a few ways you can help change someone else's: 

• Find out how you can volunteer with your local DFCS county office to support the families in your community. 
• Write an op-ed or letter to the editor for your local news source expressing the need for foster parents 
• Honor foster and adoptive parents in your community 

• Network online and share statistics and graphics to spread awareness 
• Visit fostergeorgia.com for more information. 

Now more than ever, our children need stable, nurturing environments until they can be reunited with their families or establish other lifelong relationships with an adult. This May, we're calling on you to get involved, because it takes an entire village to support our children and families in need.