From the very beginning Connect Child & Family Solutions' goal is to prioritize the hearts and minds of children, along with their foster and biological families, including the traumatized and those needing healing. We want to be a “safe place” when lives are being disrupted and, IDEALLY, REPAIRED AS WELL. To ensure we are fulfilling our vision for Connect, it is our number one priority to fight for reunification of biological families. While this may seem detrimental from the outside, research shows that reunifying families, when possible, is the healthiest for children and their family as a whole. As many may not know, Connect Child & Family has added a staff member to our team this year. Jacob Wiemelt is our Family Specialist, and he has been working very hard to create a habilitation program. Through this program, Jacob assists in the reunification process by going into homes to train and mentor biological families with life skills that will enable them to get back on track. Some of the things that are taught through this program are cleaning, budgeting, arranging services per social workers, calendar organization, and avoiding environmental hazards that are often inevitable in some living situations. One of the common threads for these families is dealing with pesky nature that sometimes finds their way into their homes. Pests are a problem for a lot of people, but not everyone can afford monthly pest control, and one way to keep nature out of our families homes is to avoid WOOD. This is where we introduce the wonderful PLASTIC DRESSER DRAWERS. How do these help? They are easy to keep clean, a great way to keep a family's belongings organized, easy to move, and compact for smaller living arrangments. Plastic drawers may seem basic to most, but they are a versitale and useful component for a family trying to setup house and life as a family unit. With this said, our Giving Tuesday Campaign for 2022 will be focused on providing as many plastic dresser drawers for intact families and families trying to reunify as possible. Everyone deserves a special, clean place to keep their belongings, and these drawers will do just that. This is a small, but huge, way to provide normalcy for a family that is experiencing everything but normal.