Dr. Greg Manning

A Professional Trainer, Keynote Speaker and Consultant

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Dr. Greg Manning – Permanency in the News – Week of 9/9/19

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Permanency Tip of the Week:  Let’s All Practice Some Patience

The breakneck pace that we often experience in Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice can make the virtue of patience a very difficult one to put into practice.  Given all the primary and secondary trauma that permeates the experience for many of us providers along with the clients we serve, it is crucial that we practice good self-care and good care for others by pausing and displaying patience towards those around us and to ourselves.  When we display patience, it allows us to show grace and compassion, see the positive in challenging situations, and to learn from our mistakes.  If any, or all, of these potential outcomes, sound intriguing to you, try to practice some patience towards yourself, those whom you serve with, and those whom you serve.

 

Permanency Success Story of the Week: The Brydges Family

Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption (DTFA) – Dalton and Dawson spent more than three years in foster care. In 2017, they were adopted by Robbin and Steven Brydges, of Florida, through the Foundation’s Wendy’s Wonderful Kids program. “The boys are truly living their best lives!” says Robbin. When Dawson came to live with the Brydges, he was academically behind everyone in his class. Last year, he made the honor roll in all four quarters. He starts 5th grade this fall. He plays football and is in the Boy Scouts. Dalton, who has cerebral palsy, has also made incredible progress. He is physically stronger. He is saying more words. And he is learning how to show love to others. When asked what the gift of family means to him, Dawson shared, “Together. I have someone to love me.”

The Brydges family, of Florida, adopted Dalton and Dawson from foster care with the support of Rachel Adler, a Wendy’s Wonderful Kids adoption recruiter, did all she could to find the boys their forever family. “To me, family is so important,” she shared. “And to know that there are kids who don’t have that and might not have the chance to have that…I thought how awesome that I get to do that work.”

 

Permanency Related Articles:

The Family First Prevention Services Act Can Fund Needed Services and Supports for Older Youth in Foster Care

Child Trends – Most older youth (ages 14 and over) in foster care enter care as teenagers due to parental neglect or behavior problems. The Family First Prevention Services Act (Family First Act), signed into law in February 2018, marks a fundamental shift in federal funding priorities for child welfare and provides several opportunities for states to better support older youth to stay with their families. The Family First Act includes provisions allowing states to use federal Title IV-E funding to support older youth in foster care to live in family settings, safely care for their own children if pregnant/parenting, and access expanded independent living services. Importantly, the Family First Act also funds states’ efforts to prevent older youth from entering care…

 

Aftercare Services are Key to Positive Community Adjustment

Models for Change Resource Center Partnership – For young offenders who, for public safety reasons, cannot remain in the community, placement is still more than mere punishment. It is also an opportunity to provide services that address problem behaviors such as substance use, and to provide educational support or build vocational skills—in other words, to pave the way to positive development and a successful life. But the impact of these services depends on how effectively they are continued and built on when the youth returns to the community.

Four lessons have emerged from recent studies: 1) Institutional placement is a repeated and disruptive event for serious adolescent offenders. 2) Planning for re-entry should be a goal of services from the first day of placement forward. 3) Probation supervision and community-based services are both critical in the period right after an institutional stay. 4) Major factors in a successful transition are involvement in developmentally appropriate activities, mainly school and work…

 

50 SIMPLE SELF-CARE TIPS

For When You’re Stressed, Sad, or Uninspired. ♡ Today’s video is all about self-care. Because life can be overwhelming sometimes! ♡

 

“Back to School” with Ernest Henderson, Jr (Podcast)

A Fostered Life – It’s back to school time, and for youth in foster care, that can either be a really good thing or a really, really hard thing (or a bit of both.)  Today I’m speaking with Ernest Henderson, Associate Director of Eastern Washington Education Programs at Treehouse.

Ernest not only brings the professional insights of someone who devotes his career to helping foster youth succeed in school, but he also brings a background of being a former foster youth and a former foster parent. In this episode, we discuss some of the ways a foster parent can support their child in school, how to navigate communicating with your child’s teachers and school personnel, and tips for preparing your foster youth to succeed in a new school. We also touched on positive discipline for youth in foster care and ways to empower and encourage our kids…

 

Webinar – The Promise of Adolescence: Realizing Opportunity for All Youth

Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) – Join us for the webinar, The Promise of Adolescence: Realizing Opportunity for All Youth (Tuesday, September 24: 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm ET). Two of the members of the National Academies of Sciences (NAS) Committee that produced this recently released report—Leslie Leve, Ph.D., University of Oregon, and Sue Mangold, JD, Juvenile Law Center—will present report findings that relate most directly to children in the child welfare system. Their presentation will be followed by a conversation between the presenters and the guest editors of a soon-to-be-released special issue of Child Welfare journal, “Twenty Years after the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 (“Chafee”): What We Know Now About Meeting the Needs of Teens.” Guest editors for this special issue are Cassandra Simmel, Ph.D., Rutgers University, and Victoria Kelly, PsyD, MSW, CWLA Board of Directors.

This is the first in a series of webinars on this topic. The second webinar will include the youth response to the findings of the NAS report and to the impact of the Chafee Act. The NAS report and report highlights are available for free download at The Promise of Adolescence.

 

 

Sincerely,

Dr. Greg Manning