Brevard Bar Foundation helping children who can’t be home for the holidays – $1,000 donation to Brevard Family Partnership will help purchase gifts for children who will spend the Holiday season in foster care

MELBOURNE, Fla. – November 19, 2013 – The Brevard Bar Foundation is helping to ensure that youth in foster care who won’t be in their own homes for the holidays will be remembered on their special day. The Foundation recently presented a check for $1,000 to Brevard Family Partnership to buy toys and gifts for children and teens ranging in age from one to 18 years.

“Each month, the Brevard Bar Foundation selects a nonprofit organization to support. We chose Brevard’s child welfare system of care because they serve so many children who’ve suffered trauma and whose lives have been disrupted through removal from their parents and homes,” said Brooke Deratany Goldfarb, a member of the Brevard County Bar Association and Brevard Family Partnership’s board of directors who presented the check to BFP’s CEO Dr. Patricia Nellius. “We want these children to have a joyous holiday and let them know that someone cares about them and wants them to be happy!”

Brevard Family Partnership, Brevard County’s lead child welfare agency along with its case management agencies and abuse prevention organization Brevard C.A.R.E.S. collects and provides holiday gifts to over 3,000 children being served in and outside of the formal court-ordered dependency system. These include those who reside in foster and group homes, removed as a result of abuse, neglect or abandonment, as well as children and families who are in crisis and at risk of abuse but are being served safely in their homes, through unique Wraparound programs and services.

Toys and gifts purchased have been selected by the children through a “wish list” they give to their case managers or care coordinators. The groups then work together with several area businesses and organizations whose employees and staff personally shop for the specific gifts to make those wishes come true for as many children as possible.

If you are interested in sponsoring a child or children in Brevard’s system of care this Holiday season, call (321) 752-4650 or visit www.BrevardFP.org.

About the Brevard Bar Foundation
The Brevard Bar Foundation is dedicated to building bridges between lawyers and the community. Past recipients of the Foundation’s generosity have included the Zonta Club and Sally’s House, Grace Equine Rescue & Therapy for Humans, veterans groups like AVET, programs designed to keep kids off drugs (LEOSA), and legal help for the needy through Brevard County Legal Aid. In the fall, BBF provides free law lectures to the public through the Space Coast Community Law School in areas of interest such as social security, divorce, immigration, and firearms law. More info can be found at the foundation’s website: http://brevardbarfoundation.org.

About Brevard Family Partnership
Established in 2004 by a Legislative mandate to privatize foster care and related services in Florida (Section 409.1617, Florida Statutes), Brevard Family Partnership is Brevard County’s lead child welfare agency. Working in partnership with over 70 community organizations, its mission is to protect children, strengthen families and change lives through the prevention of child abuse and the operation and management of a comprehensive, integrated, community-based system of care for abused, abandoned and neglected children, and their families.

###