Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Monday, July 13, 2009

 

Page 3

 

George Reappoints Antonovich to Foster Care Panel

 

By a MetNews Staff Writer

 

Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich has been reappointed to the California Blue Ribbon Commission on Children in Foster Care by Chief Justice Ronald M. George, county officials said Friday.

The commission’s mission is to make recommendations to the state Judicial Council on how to improve outcomes for children in foster care. George established the statewide panel in March 2006.

In a statement, Antonovich emphasized the importance of the commission’s mission to improve the quality of life for foster youth and promote the placement of eligible children into adoptive homes, commenting that “[c]hildren aren’t the future, they are today” because they “will have no future” if their present-day needs are not being met. 

The supervisor is active in child welfare activities, sponsoring annual foster youth career fairs and resource expos, adoption festivals, fundraisers for foster youth needs and faith-based forums to promote foster and adoptive parent recruitment throughout the county, officials said.

He has also made millions of dollars in grants available throughout the Fifth Supervisorial District for supportive housing for transition age foster youth who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness.

In 2007, on Antonovich’s motion, Los Angeles County sponsored state legislation to enhance services and financial support to emancipated foster youth between the ages of 18 and 21 statewide, and in 2006 he negotiated a Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration Project for Los Angeles County, which gives the county flexible use of funding for prevention and intervention programs designed to keep children in their homes or move them to timely alternative permanency.

 Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush appointed Antonovich to numerous presidential committees and commissions, including the Missing Children Advisory Board. He also serves on the Child Abuse Program in the California Legislature and is involved in various community activities, which include serving the Good Shepherd Lutheran Home for Retarded Children and the San Gabriel Valley Council of the Boy Scouts of America. 

The National Association of Counties honored Antonovich with the 2003 “Counties Care for Kids” Award, and he was the MetNews Person of the Year in 2002. The Antelope Valley Courthouse is named in his honor.

Antonovich is a graduate of John Marshall High School and California State University at Los Angeles.

 

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