Director's Corner

A NEW YEAR!
In December, I had the privilege of attending the Fifth International Conference on Social Work in Health and Mental Health in Hong Kong. I presented a brief workshop on our large adoption grant project which served families and children in the Danville and Lynchburg areas. It focused primarily on our work with families to prepare them for adoption of children from the foster care system. In addition to the presentation of our work, I was able to attend several other sessions at the conference. There are more details about the trip in this newsletter.

We are now ready to start a new year at DePaul Family Services. As some of you know, this year we are celebrating our 30th Anniversary. Our actual anniversary is in March but we will be recognizing our anniversary and celebrating throughout the year. I hope you will be able to take part in our on-going activities.

As we enter our 30th Anniversary year, I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on where we have been as an agency and where we hope to go in the future. We began in 1977 as a small foster care agency with ties to St. Andrew's Catholic Church in Roanoke. We were joined to the Achievement Center, a school for children with learning disabilities, which also operated out of St. Andrew's. The director of DePaul was also the director of the Achievement Center. In 1984, a solo director was hired, Herb Beskar. Herb directed the growth and development of the agency for 20 years, until his retirement in 2004.

From our small beginning we have developed into a large multi-function human service agency, serving over 500 individuals on a daily basis through our programs in treatment foster care, developmental disabilities, clinical services and adoption. We have several components in each of our four program areas. Our staff of over 240 is committed to serving our children and families with integrity and high quality service every day. We have several 24-hour program components which serve clients needing full-time care, as well as many services which operate more traditional hours. We have established a reputation for excellence in our service delivery and our fair dealings with others.

In the future, I know we will continue our high quality of services to children and families. We plan to expand our group homes for adults and continue to grow our treatment foster care program to serve more children, as well as provide new and more comprehensive services. Our clinical services and adoption services both are experiencing growth and are exploring new avenues of service. I am greatly appreciative of all the hard work of our staff, foster parents and care providers. As we celebrate 30 years, I envision many more years of service to our community.

Sue Bentley
Executive Director
DePaul Family Services