Co-Parenting Thanksgiving Dinner

November 27, 2019

Biological families joined their children and the foster families caring for them for a very special Thanksgiving dinner Saturday at the Sunlight Community Church, in Port St. Lucie.

It was the Treasure Coast's first co-parenting dinner arranged to help keep families who are recovering from crisis together during the holiday.

More than 25 people, including children, attended the dinner. The Albert Wilson Foundation supplied the turkeys, which were prepared by Fit Fixins, a local business that also donated sides and other goodies.

A committee composed of QPI (Quality Parenting Initiative) members and CCKids' Caregiver Support staff coordinated the event.

"It's an opportunity for children in foster care to celebrate the holiday with their families while also demonstrating the power of co-parenting," said Jerra Wisecup, who coordinated a similar project many years ago in Georgia.

Co-parenting is a best practice championed in recent years by QPI that encourages partnership between families while children are in foster care. Research shows that co-parenting creates better transitions for children returning home and provides on-going supports to vulnerable families.

Among those at the event was Albert Wilson Sr., whose son and namesake – and now an NFL player for the Miami Dolphins – was in foster care as a teenager. He sat at a table with Rose Bailey, his son’s former foster mother.

“At first I thought everyone was against us because they took my kid,” Sr. said, sharing his story with the group. “But it doesn’t work that way – it’s OK, things happen to all of us – but there’s somebody out there got your back.”

Bailey said Albert Jr. left her home 20 years ago, but he is still part of her family. And she is part of his.

“Anybody in this world is capable of that,” she said. “We’re a village right here in this room, and we all need to pick one another up.”