Dear DCF Family, system colleagues, contracted service partners, service recipients, and friends,

As we prepare to celebrate a Thanksgiving like no other, in a year like no other, we should recognize that many among us are having a hard time feeling grateful in 2020.

Many of us are feeling isolated or disconnected from extended family and friends. We may feel anxious or fearful for the future, or stressed about the challenges that lay ahead. Many are grieving lost loved ones, taken too soon by a global health crisis. Most of us will not celebrate the holiday with the traditions and trappings that offer familiarity and comfort, at a time when we all could use a heavy dose of both.

And while this Thanksgiving will be unlike anything we’ve celebrated in the past, there are still opportunities to embrace our connections, to recharge our resiliency, to be grateful for blessings in the face of adversity and to hope for a better tomorrow.

While the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and health experts are advising against travelling to large family Thanksgiving gatherings, I urge you to pick up the phone, or join a family Zoom meeting, or use your creativity to safely link up with loved ones during Thanksgiving. For my family, we’re swapping recipes and joining a Zoom call, so that we can enjoy each other’s company and typical obligatory contributions to our traditional Thanksgiving dinner, even while separated by distance and necessity.

If you’re feeling the stress or anxiety of the holiday, acknowledge it, talk or journal about it, and don’t let it stay hidden and unspoken. The people around you who love and care for you can help offer new perspectives or shoulder some of that stress. Offer the same to the people you love and care for.

Focus on the things that have been rewarding and joyful, even as so much has been stressful this year. For my part, I am so thankful and grateful to all of our first responders who have redefined bravery these last eight months. I am incredibly thankful for our Team DCF and child welfare system colleagues who have made their service to children and families a priority, even while they navigate their own personal challenges in the face of the COVID-19 emergency.

And finally, please remember that better days are just over the horizon. As the nation begins to roll out at least two promising vaccines, each with high effective rates, we can begin to take steps as a nation to recover and rebuild, to embrace a new normal that is, hopefully, defined by increased compassion, connection, and collective action to address the challenges that hold us back as a nation and in our shared humanity.

On behalf of the entire NJ DCF family, I’d like to extend my wishes to you and yours’ for a safe and healthy Thanksgiving and beginning of the winter holiday season. Thank you for all you do to keep New Jersey safe, healthy, and connected, and looking forward to our continued partnership moving into the future.

With gratitude,

-Christine

Christine Norbut Beyer, MSW

Commissioner, New Jersey Department of Children and Families