At our January lunch meeting, the Exchange Club of Greater Newburyport heard from guest speakers Danielle Maloney and Deb Smith about the Massachusetts Department of Children & Families Foster MA program. Danielle has been with DCF since 1988. Most of her career has focused on providing training, licensing and matching for foster families. In 2019 she started working in the Greater Haverhill DCF office focusing on raising awareness about foster family programs and recruiting foster families. The office is now located in the Boston North Technology Park in Amesbury.

DCF is a child protective agency. They take a kinship-first family focus where they try to keep families together by engaging grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other family members whenever possible to keep the family intact. Fostering is usually short term – 80% of children go home quickly (within a few weeks). The goal is to minimize disruption while maintaining safety. You can find more information about the Foster MA program on their website.

Deb is the former Executive Director of The Pettengill House Inc. and also a long-time board member of MA DCF. Pettengill House serves about 2000 community members each year, about 600 of whom are homeless. You can find more information about Pettengill House as well as donate on the Pettengill House website.