Connect Our Kids and Judge Blair Edwards help child welfare professionals in Louisiana

The office of Judge Blair Edwards of the 21st Judicial District Juvenile Court and Connect Our Kids announced a day-long educational session for child welfare professionals featuring the Connect Our Kids technology tools.

TANGIPAHOA PARISH, La. (PRWEB) March 28, 2023

Non-profit's technology tools highlighted for finding families, building healthy connections, and creating community for children in the foster care system

The office of Judge Blair Edwards of the 21st Judicial District Juvenile Court and Connect Our Kids, a non-profit organization pioneering technology to find families, build connections, and create community for America's most vulnerable people, today announced a day-long educational session for child welfare professionals featuring the Connect Our Kids technology tools.

Judge Edwards' training is scheduled for Wednesday, March 29, 2023, at the Tangipahoa Parish Juvenile Justice Center, 801 S. First Street, Amite, LA 70422. The session is tailored to professionals working in child welfare, the Office of Juvenile Justice, anti-trafficking roles, school boards, truancy, social work, and sheriff's offices. More than 100 people have pre-registered.

As one of the country's most successful family discovery and engagement platforms, Connect Our Kids creates cost-free technology resources for social workers, child advocates, and CASA volunteers. The organization's premier tool, Family Connections, is an online and mobile app used to find contact information for extended families and supporters of children in foster care and those who have aged out or are homeless. Family Connections has been used to make connections for thousands of children each year since the tool was launched in 2020.

"Every child in the foster care system has an extended family, cultural community, and network of neighbors, teachers, coaches, and others," explains Judge Edwards. "Discovering them has been a slow, labor-intensive, manual process. With Connect Our Kids technology in use across Louisiana, we can hasten the kind of results we all wish for – loving homes and supportive connections."

"We are delighted to be recognized as a best practice tool. We are committed to being a force multiplier for child welfare advocates," said Jessica Stern, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at Connect Our Kids. "By working closely with those doing this vital work, we continue to enhance Family Connections and People Search, easing the complexities of family search and engagement."

Connect Our Kids is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization started in 2017 to apply modern technology to extended family search and engagement. The organization develops free software tools, including People Search and Family Connections, to assist welfare professionals in helping children in foster care and other vulnerable groups. Connect Our Kids works with direct service partners, funding partners, strategic and advocacy partners, and some of the largest technology companies in the world. In use across 44 states, the Connect Our Kids platform fills a much-needed gap in the child-welfare system, accelerating the support and caring relationships that change lives and help heal trauma. http://www.ConnectOurKids.org

21st Judicial District Juvenile Court
The Twenty-First Judicial District Court is one of Louisiana's 43 judicial districts and has original jurisdiction of all civil and criminal matters in Livingston, St. Helena, & Tangipahoa Parishes. There are nine elected judges (Division A - F, I - K) in the Twenty-First Judicial District. http://www.21stjdc.org

For the original version on PRWeb visit: https://www.prweb.com/releases/2023/3/prweb19247978.htm