Couve Scoop

MAY 2022

FVRL Summer Reading 2022

It’s almost time for summer reading! Starting June 1, Fort Vancouver Regional Libraries will once again invite Southwest Washington community members of all ages to read and participate in activities, then earn prizes, plus enter into a grand prize drawing. This summer’s activities will again be largely virtual, with both YouTube videos (which can be viewed from their premier date through August 31) and live, Zoom events which are real-time and interactive. Follow your local library on Facebook or ask at your library branch to see what impromptu live activities may be happening at the branch nearest you.

Sign up for Summer Reading 2022 and learn more details about the grand prize and a full list of virtual activities starting June 1 at fvrl.org.

Above left: Jessa Campbell will perform an early learning live Zoom program as part of the library’s Summer At Your Library and Summer Reading Program 2022. Photo courtesy FVRL.

Above right: Danza Azteca will perform a bilingual show on FVRLibraries’ YouTube channel as part of the library’s Summer At Your Library 2022.

Photo courtesy FVRL.

Local nonprofit Office Moms & Dads recently changed their name to Fosterful, but their commitment to caring for kids in foster care transitions

remains the same. Photos courtesy Fosterful.

Local Nonprofit Office Moms & Dads Is Now

Since 2013, a grassroots group of community members known as Office Moms & Dads (OMD) has been volunteering at local child welfare offices in Washington and Idaho. Their goal was to provide a soft landing to children entering foster care, or spending time at the offices for a variety of reasons, so that children don’t feel alone during such a frightening time. The group has worked with the community to provide new, clean clothing, luggage, food and other necessities so the kids are ready when a foster caregiver comes to pick them up. OMD also serves as a way for community members to get involved with foster care without becoming a full-fledged foster parent. On-call volunteers serve Monday through Friday during business hours, helping alleviate social workers of the childcare aspect of their job.

Throughout the pandemic, the group continued to care for kids by providing resources that social workers could deliver during visits, like remote learning supplies, clothing, therapeutic toys and meals to caregivers who had no other source for respite.

Over the past two years, as the national conversation turned to systemic racism, the leadership at OMD began listening to leaders of the BIPOC community to hear their stories and gain feedback for how the program could better serve children of color who have been, and continue to be, overrepresented in foster care.

Additionally, the group heard from non-binary volunteers who were excited and passionate about the mission, but concerned about the exclusive nature of the name. Their voices added to the urgency of finding a brand that would reflect the organization’s values of equity and inclusivity to all.

As child welfare offices have begun mobilizing volunteers once again, the Board of Directors voted to use this opportunity for change and growth. As of March 1, 2022 Office Moms & Dads registered with the Secretary of State to become Fosterful.

Leadership believes that ‘Fosterful’ highlights the fact that the group has become more than just volunteer companions to kids in foster care. They are mindful, thoughtful and hopeful. Through trauma-informed care practices, they provide nurturing environments and basic necessities to kids in care in 26+ locations throughout Washington and Idaho. Under this new banner the nonprofit organization has room to grow into a movement for changing the child welfare system from the inside out.

Vancouver Innovation, Technology and Arts (VITA) Elementary School Prepares to Open as a Learning Lab in Fall 2022

Planning for the opening of Vancouver Innovation, Technology and Arts (VITA) Elementary School is beginning to take shape. The new public elementary school, located near Fort Vancouver National HistoricSiteandFortVancouverRegionalLibraryDistrictadministration offices, is set to open in fall 2022. However, due to an enrollment decline across Vancouver Public Schools (VPS), the school will operate for the first year as a learning and teaching lab. Every second through fifth grader in Vancouver Public Schools will take an extended multiday field trip to the VITA Learning Lab at some time during the 2022-23 school year, for project-based learning experiences that will be enhanced through partnerships with community organizations. “This is a great opportunity for nearly all of our elementary students to experience the innovation and curricular integration of VITA,” said VPS school board president Kyle Sproul. “It is our goal to anchor VITA as a learning laboratory where the creativity and exploration of the program can serve to benefit all of our elementary schools.” Following the first year, the school will operate as an elementary school for project-based learning. The school also may serve as a neighborhood school for the downtown area, relieving enrollment at Hough and Harney elementary schools if needed.

Back when the school was in the early building stages, the community wasinvitedtosubmitnameideasforthenewbuilding.Outofhundredsof suggestions, Vancouver Innovation, Technology and Arts Elementary School, or VITA was selected. The name was recommended by a student, Seneca C., who noted that the acronym, VITA, is the Latin word for “life.” “Isn’t the main point of school to bring your ideas to life?” she wrote in her suggestion. “Personally, I think that the idea of having an elementary school with such a powerful name is wonderful," she continued, "because elementary school students are so full of life that it would be wonderful to be able to display that to the community.”

Vancouver Innovation, Technology and Arts (VITA) Elementary School will open in fall 2022 as a special learning lab for elementary school students within Vancouver Public Schools.

Photo by Cheryl Boatman.