(L to R): General Magistrate Giuseppina Miranda; Emilio Benitez, ChildNet president and CEO; and Monica King, ChildNet Broward County executive director.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – In an artistic partnership, ChildNet, the community-based care lead agency in Broward and Palm Beach counties, Museum of Art │Fort Lauderdale, Community Foundation of Broward, Forever Family and local artist Eduardo Gardin unveiled the county’s largest family totem pole exhibit entitled ‘Forest of Families’ during a recent reception at the Museum of Art │Fort Lauderdale.
 
Forest of Families, ChildNet’s Art of Community project designed to help raise awareness about the need for loving, caring foster parents, is a collection of more than 300 personalized totem poles. Families have been busy creating personalized totem poles at various exhibits across the county for the past 8 months. Children, parent, and grandparents worked together to artistically express what the idea of family means to them and to learn about what family means to children in foster care.  
 
“Finding, engaging, licensing and retaining quality foster homes is not an easy task, so we wanted to create something memorable that raise awareness about the need,” said Elizabeth Wynter, ChildNet director of community relations. “The goal of Forest of Families was to represent the number and diversity of families in our community and to inspire people to expand their definition of family to include children in foster care."
 
The concept of using art to engage the community and impact an issue such as foster home recruitment was motivated by the Community Foundation of Broward's Art of Community initiative which strives to gather, nurture and celebrate diversity in the community. As Broward County is a melting pot of resources and ethnic groups, the Foundation’s goal is to provide avenues to bridge the gap between groups to build understanding and stronger societal bonds. Forest of Families kicked off in January when Community Foundation of Broward awarded ChildNet a $15,000 grant for the project.
 
"While we’ve been successful in finding loving parents to open their hearts and homes to children in foster care, there is still a great need for more," said Emilio Benitez, Chief Executive Officer and President of ChildNet. "We believe that the Forest of Families project has been effective in engaging the community, and we look forward to working with everyone to find a home for each and every child in our care.”
 
ChildNet's mission is to protect abused, abandoned and neglected children in the communities it serves. As the single private non-profit entity responsible for administration of the local child welfare systems in Broward and Palm Beach counties, ChildNet manages a network of child welfare agencies to provide a wide array of services to children in care, families, and foster and adoptive parents.
 
For more information about the Forest of Families project or becoming a foster parent, call ChildNet Broward County at 954-414-6001. Visit www.ChildNet.us.