"Nothing you do for children is ever wasted. They seem not to notice us, hovering, adverting their eyes, and they seldom offer thanks, but what we do for them is never wasted."
-- Garrison Keillor
"You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance."
-- Franklin P. Jones
"If we don't stand up for children, then we don't stand for much."
-- Marian Wright Edelman
"We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today."
-- Stacia Tauscher
"Children are our most valuable natural resource."
-- Herbert Hoover
"I implore you to see with a child's eyes, to hear with a child's ears, and to feel with a child's heart."
-- Antonio Novello, Doctor
Wafts Board of Directors
Alan Willoughby, JD, MPA, Executive Director
Treatment Foster Parent, Seattle YMCA,
FASD Life Foundation
Faith Wentz, President
Retired Supervisor,
Central Washington Community Mental Health
Harold Moller, Vice-President
KidSense, Child Placing Agency
Mark Richards-Wetzel, Secretary
Seattle YMCA,Foster Parent,
Foster Parent Recruiter/Retention
Jean-Paul Janovitch, Treasurer
KidSense, Child Placing Agency
Steve Boggess, Member-at-Large
Program Director,
Central Washington Community Mental Health
The Washington Association of Family-Based Treatment Services (WAFTS) has been a voice for family-based treatment providers for over 18 years. As a grassroots organization, WAFTS has worked to ensure the professionalization of treatment foster parents and kinship care providers and to assist agencies in meeting state and national standards for treatment foster care and family preservation services. With a grant from the Division of Mental Health, WAFTS sponsored the first treatment foster care conference in 1988. Since then, WAFTS has been instrumental in ensuring trainings that meet the needs of treatment foster parents and the agencies that support them.
The Mission of the Washington Association of Family-based Treatment Services is to:
"Advocate for the recognition, support and enhancement of family-based treatment services for children."The goals of the Association are:
- To advocate for the right of children to live within a family-based setting, whenever possible, and for the right of that family to be in a position of leadership regarding the best interests of the child and family.
- To provide educational and consultative services to improve family-based treatment services.
- To promote the recognition and professional identity of treatment foster parents and kinship care providers as change agents.
- To provide leadership in establishing and enhancing quality services and standards of practice.
- To continue a leadership role in facilitating cooperation and communication among family-based treatment service providers
Some of WAFTS accomplishments to date:
- A leadership position in the State-Wide Foster Care/Care Givers Conferences, a role we have played for nearly 20 years. One of the venues for providing training.
- Development of the WAFTS one and two-day Institutes for treatment providers. Another venue for providing training
- Active membership with the Child Welfare Advocacy Coalition; a group of social workers in King County who work as change agents for child welfare Legislative issues.
- Testifying on behalf of important legislation affecting foster care and working with legislative staff to amend bills. Working to maintain family preservation services funding during times of cutbacks.
- Holding providers meetings which support and enables providers to discuss regional issues concerning family-based treatment services and to look at ways that WAFTS can be of assistance.
- Comprehensive evaluation of four treatment foster care agencies. Consultation to several membership agencies.
- Representing family-based treatment providers and foster parents in work groups within the Division of Licensed Resources and Children's Administration.
- Volunteerism is a key to the success of our association. Private Agency Program managers and foster parents throughout the state give of their time as board members and actively volunteer in legislative, consultative, and training opportunities. Their commitment to the goals of the association allows us to operate with little funding. Our goal is to provide services to the entire state of Washington, thus our quarterly membership meetings are held in various sites throughout the state.
