Governor Brian Kemp has appointed Fran Chastain of Alto to serve on the Division of Family and Children Services State Advisory Board. Chastain is the Dean for Student Affairs at North Georgia Technical College in Clarkesville. She currently chairs the Habersham County DFCS board and is on the Region2 DFCS board.
Chastain’s ties to DFCS go beyond the boardroom. In 2002, she and her family began a thirteen-year journey fostering children through the state agency. Fran and her husband Ricky have served well over fifty children and adopted eleven of them. She says those experiences will inform her work on the state advisory panel.
“I would like to use my knowledge and experience as a long-time foster and adoptive parent to influence positive change for children in foster care,” Chastain tells Now Habersham. “I want to not only help families keep children out of foster care, but help those children who linger in foster care, especially those who age out with nowhere to go. We have to create a support system and career training options for these young people to prosper and not repeat the cycle.”
In addition to her volunteer work with DFCS, Chastain serves on the board of the Family Resource Center in Clarkesville.
