March 14, 2024 Minutes

Weld Faith Partnership Council Minutes

March 14, 2024, 7:30 a.m.
Via Zoom

Council Members in Attendance (All attendees were remote via Zoom): Rob Thomas, Stacey Casteel, Margie Martinez, Lyn Tausan, Nate Taverner, Steve Osborn, Dave Shumpert, Amber Cecil, Commissioner Lori Saine. 

DHS: Kristy DeAnda

Council Members Absent: Tim Martinez, Roxy Tines, Pam Sommer, John Rotharmel

Call to Order: 7:07 AM

Announcements:

Lyn Tausan:

  • Showing of “Letters to the American Church” at Windsor Calvary Chapel
  • Saturday 3/16 and Monday 3/18 from 6:30-8:30 PM 
  • Constitutional Live Classes - Lyn got people to sign up at her caucus to do the Constitutional Live Class
  • Charter schools are implementing this class into their curriculum
  • She is looking for a location to host citizen constitutional classes – See Lyn if interested

Steve Osborn: 

  • Carbon Valley Foster Parent Night Out
  • He said that it was very organized with having volunteers one on one engaging the kids in the activities
  • They gave the foster parents gift cards for dinner
  • The volunteers were adults and teens that were all Trauma Trained
  • Colorado Kids Belong was brainstorming potentially getting a restaurant to invest in a foster family
  • They would ideally bring the family into the restaurant and have the chef come out and include them in understanding the pairing process; This would allow families to learn where they belongJ

January Minutes: Stacey made a motion to approve the meeting minutes from January and Amber seconded. Motion passed unanimously.

Commissioner Update (Lori Saine):

  • Commissioner Saine has been talking to pastors in Weld County about the life petition
  • She feels like she is making a breakthrough, specifically with male pastors
  • She is educating churches on how to support the topic without jeopardizing their tax status as a church

Human Services Update (Kristy DeAnda):

  • Kristy informed the group that Foster Care is becoming more proactive creating good relationships between foster families and a child’s biological family
  • The Family Visitation Center is now called Family Time Center
  • They are focusing on doing icebreakers very soon after a child is placed with a family and the foster families are leading the way 
  • This approach began in February of this year and is really giving Christian foster families an opportunity to minister to the biological families. 

Foster Awareness Month (Rob Thomas):

  • Rob showed a clip from “Possum Trot”: Link here
  • Commissioner Saine also shared a link: Link here
  • Rob Thomas informed the group that the May 9th meeting will be held at the county commissioners building with a room reserved already for us to host a 2nd annual Foster Awareness Breakfast for Foster Awareness Month 
  • The keynote speaker is Ray Martinez 
  • He is going to be discussing redemption and reunification with his mom - He will emphasize the importance of churches in this process
  • It was suggested that Scott James introduce Ray Martinez, but after some discussion, and hearing Kristy DeAnda’s story with foster care, the group thought that a better person to introduce would be Kristy herself, or potentially her foster son 
  • Kristy wanted to remind us all the importance of the role of the church in connecting foster families with their biological families and that reunification is the end goal
  • It is important to craft our speaker’s message to reunification 
  • The county wants potential adoptive families to foster first before moving on to adopting and ultimately trying to have a child reunified with their biological families, and then if that fails, potentially adopting
  • She mentioned about showing a video at the breakfast about fostering. 

Tasks for May’s breakfast: 

  • Nate is going to work on trying to find a sponsor for the breakfast food and plates and utensils 
  • Last year, Christ Community “For the City” and Zoe’s sponsored the food 
  • He is going to request for 80-100 people.
  • Rob is also going to talk to his church about potentially sponsoring the coffee
  • Commissioner Saine mentioned the commissioners may be able to provide coffee pots if needed and she is going to ask Karla about that
  • Rob is going to be working on the agenda for the May meeting
  • Kristy is going to be following up with Karla on if there is anything Karla needs from us 
  • Kristy is considering telling her story and possibly bringing her foster son

 Stacey made a motion to host the Foster Awareness Breakfast in May and Nate seconded, Motion passed unanimously.

Next Month’s Agenda:

  • Nate and Margie will be talking to us about Awards
  • Follow-up on Breakfast details

Zoom Usage - Future Meetings:

  • Group discussed their thoughts on doing Zoom meetings
  • It was determined that they are nice to have as an alternate option to help with quorum, but Zoom should not become frequent alternative for meetings  for the entire group
  • We will specifically use them for inclement weather situations.  

Meeting Adjourned at 9:03am.

Minutes Submitted by Stacey Casteel

 

 

 

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