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Ron Inge, Jessica Stanfield, Ashley Rhodes-Courter. -SHANE ANTALICK PHOTOGRAPHY \/ COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n
A.N.A.\u2019s Friends launched a new initiative, Among Friends, to raise awareness and spark dialogue about children and teens in Florida\u2019s foster care system.\n<\/p>\n
Held April 10 at Caloosa Sound Convention Center in Fort Myers, \u201cAmong Friends: A Conversation about Healing, Belonging and the Power of Connection\u201d was a gathering of 212 guests for solutions to instability of foster care placements, shortages of foster parents, burnout among social workers and an overloaded child welfare system.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe \u2018A.N.A.\u2019 in A.N.A.\u2019s Friends represents children who have been abused, neglected and abandoned, and their \u2018friends\u2019 include those with compassion, understanding and a willingness to advocate for children who often lack a voice in the dependency court system,\u201d said Jessica Stanfield, CEO of the Southwest Florida-based nonprofit.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\tTeresa Watkins Brown, Armor Persons, Laurie Lehmann. -SHANE ANTALICK PHOTOGRAPHY \/ COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\tCole Peacock, Spencer Roach. -SHANE ANTALICK PHOTOGRAPHY \/ COURTESY PHOTO \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\tJean Lederer, Gary Lederer. -SHANE ANTALICK PHOTOGRAPHY \/ COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\tKathy Greenberg, Bruce Greenberg. -SHANE ANTALICK PHOTOGRAPHY \/ COURTESY PHOTO Author and child welfare advocate Ashley Rhodes-Courter headlined Among Friends. Born to a single teen mother and shuffled between 14 foster homes and institutions before being adopted at age 12, Rhodes-Courter is the author of New York Times bestselling memoirs \u201cThree Little Words\u201d and \u201cThree More Words,\u201d which follow her personal journey through Florida\u2019s foster care system.\n<\/p>\n Attorney Spencer Roach, a former Guardian ad Litem and foster parent to 31 children over the years, was among those in attendance. As a Florida state representative, Roach filed a bill to reduce the amount of time children spend in foster care. The bill, \u201cA Year is a Long Time in the Life of a Child Act,\u201d was signed into law in 2019.\n<\/p>\n Originally founded in 1983, A.N.A.\u2019s Friends is a United Way Partner Agency that serves youth in the dependency court system across Collier, Lee, Charlotte, Hendry and Glades counties. For more information, please visit ANAsfriends.org<\/a> or call 239-245-7787.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ron Inge, Jessica Stanfield, Ashley Rhodes-Courter. -SHANE ANTALICK PHOTOGRAPHY \/ COURTESY PHOTO A.N.A.\u2019s Friends launched a new initiative,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-265986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/02-Teresa-Watkins-Brown-Armor-Persons-Laurie-Lehmann-1024x683.jpg\")
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