Permanency Tip of the Week: Could Impaired Functioning be a Normal Reaction to an Abnormal Reality?
When serving a youth who is struggling with his/her social, emotional, and behavioral functioning, we tend to focus our attention on addressing the functional impairments of the Youth. This approach has the potential to yield some positive short-term change; however, in order to achieve the highly desired state of sustained positive change, we must take a step back and look at our Youth’s holistic experience of his/her world. When we take this approach, we might be able to achieve greater insight into how challenging it can be for our Youth to face the reality of their everyday life. This in turn can lead us to develop greater empathy for our Youth and insight into how we need to change the external reality for our Youth (ex. parenting strategies, communication techniques, and educational settings). When we are able to address both the internal and external realities for our Youth, we increase the chances for real, substantial, and sustained positive change in their social, emotional, and behavioral functioning.
Permanency Success Story of the Week: Chloe* Finds Her Connections
The Home for Little Wanderers – At five years old, most children’s biggest adjustment is starting kindergarten. Chloe not only started kindergarten, she and her sister Sofia were removed from their home because of the extreme domestic violence they were exposed to and severe neglect.
Chloe struggled in the child welfare system at first. The blue-eyed girl had a sassy streak and was a bundle of energy… The Home’s permanency initiative focuses on a child’s long term, forever connection to a positive adult while simultaneously delivering the necessary behavioral and mental health services. Chloe made it clear to everyone that would listen she wanted to be with Sofia, her big sister… her protector. Her clinician from The Home’s Intensive Foster Care program made it a priority for Chloe and Sofia to visit regularly with one another…
Earlier this year an adoptive family was found that would take both girls. Chloe was in disbelief. She was going to get to see Sofia every day! There were concerns, what about her school, her friends, her foster mom. The Home’s social worker, Chloe’s pre-adoptive parents and her foster mom had a thoughtfully planned transition plan…Just last month, Chloe officially moved into her pre-adoptive home with her big sister. Although she was sad leaving her foster mom, Chloe shared she was relieved, “NO MORE MOVES!” The Home was able to close Chloe’s case and her adoption will hopefully be finalized later this year.
*Names and identifying information have been changed to protect our clients
Permanency Related Articles:
Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth Co-Chairs Commemorate May as National Foster Care Month
Los Angeles Sentinel – Congressional Caucus on Foster Care – Brenda Lawrence (D-MI) issued the following statement marking the beginning of National Foster Care Month. “National Foster Care Month is a month to honor the successes and challenges of the more than 400,000 foster youth across the country and to acknowledge the tireless efforts of those who work to improve outcomes for children in the child welfare system. Making sure that all children have a permanent and loving home is not a Democratic or Republican issue-it should be an American priority. This May, we come together to celebrate the experiences of the youth who are in, or have been in, the child welfare system and raise awareness about their needs.”
We Must Change the Narrative About College with Youth Who Have Experienced Foster Care
Youth Today – While many high school seniors receive acceptance letters from colleges across the country this spring, young people who have experienced foster care are mostly just trying to survive. We need to do a better job at helping youth with foster care experiences have a better chance in life. Education, particularly higher education, can change a life, one’s trajectory, and the intergenerational patterns of inequality and poverty. However, compared to a third of Americans earning a bachelor’s degree in their lifetime, only 3% to 5% of youth from foster care will graduate with a bachelor’s degree.
More than 440,000 children are in foster care in the United States and about 20,000 will age out each year, meaning they leave care at the age of 18 or 21 (depending on the state) without being adopted, entering into a guardianship or being reunified with a parent/caregiver. That’s 20,000 young people who, often abruptly, become fully responsible for their own housing, health care, employment, education and well-being without the support of others…
We are learning more about the successes and challenges foster care alumni are experiencing with accessing and succeeding in postsecondary education, but there is still much we don’t know, and very little progress has been made around improving outcomes among these youth. There have been good policy changes and improvements in the supports offered on some college campuses and in the community…
Ten Years of Juvenile Law Center’s Youth Advocacy Program
Medium.com – Juvenile Law Center’s Youth Advocacy Program is one of the many components of our work that makes Juvenile Law Center a uniquely effective leader. We benefit every day from the expertise of our youth advocates in Juveniles for Justice and Youth Fostering Change, borne in part from their experience in the juvenile justice and/or child welfare systems. This year, we are celebrating the 10th Anniversary of our Youth Advocacy Program #10YearsofYA so it is a great time to reflect upon our amazing program…
Our youth advocates are from Philadelphia, where our systems are overwhelmingly filled with black and brown youth. Their voices are often buried in bureaucracy and a society that silences the voice of youth, especially youth of color. In our program, these youth voices demand to be heard and set the agenda based upon their recommendations crafted together over the course of a year developing their reform campaign…
Their campaigns have changed law and practice in many areas of our work. A hotline and resources for expungement of juvenile records, a court sheet to prepare for permanency hearings in Family Court, last year’s permanency toolkit, Broken Bridges report and recommendations for conditions of confinement, and federal legislation protecting youth in facilities from abuse are just some of their accomplishments…
That First Night in Foster Care
A Fostered Life – Close your eyes and imagine you are with your mom and your baby brother. You are staying at a motel and Spongebob Squarepants is on TV. Suddenly, someone knocks at the door and two police officers come in and start talking to your mom. She starts to cry or yell, and then one takes you by the hand and tells you to come with him while the other one picks up your baby brother. No one tells you to grab your toy, so you don’t. You just get into the back of his police car… Your mom is crying and you’re scared. The policeman gives you a sucker—he even says you can have two! — and then he takes you to an office building, where you sit in a room with some toys, but no one to play with you. They take your brother to another room (he is asleep in his car seat). Adults with folders and papers in their hands come and go, talking quietly with each other and smiling occasionally at you.
Then, after some time (a few hours perhaps?), another adult you’ve never met introduces herself to you. She may say that her job is to help keep you safe (or something like that), and she tells you to come with her to her car. You’re going to have a sleepover with some “nice people” tonight. She grabs a backpack from a closet that (you will find out later) has clothes you’ve never seen and a toothbrush that isn’t yours and a someone else’s stuffed animal.
Your baby brother does not come with you…
The woman who lives there opens the backpack you brought and there are some pajamas inside. She tells you to put them on. She said it’s time to “brush your teeth,” but this is not something you usually do, so you look at her without moving. She says it again, and you don’t know what you’re supposed to do…Finally, she tells you to pick out a book and sit on the bed. None of the books you like are there, but you choose one from the shelf. She sits next to you and starts to read. She touches your hand and it feels weird. You miss your mom. You wonder about your baby brother. You do not want to be here, but no one asked you what you want…
You lie there feeling afraid, angry and confused. You have no idea why you’re here. You have no idea how long you’ll be here. You have no idea when you’ll see your mom again. You start to cry.
At some point, you fall asleep.
Moms Find Redemption and Reunification at the Willows
Union Leader – Manchester, NH – The 14-month-old toddler wobbled over to his mom and collapsed in her open arms with a happy grin. It’s a milestone familiar to anyone who’s a parent. But for this mom, her little son’s embrace is precious beyond price, the prize from her hard-fought battle with addiction and trauma. Theirs is one of the first success stories to come out of a promising new recovery housing program run by Families In Transition (FIT)/New Horizons at the Willows substance use treatment center in Manchester. The program helps single moms, who have lost custody of their children because of substance use disorders, get back on track — and get their kids back…
McGuigan, a social worker with a background in early childhood education, said it takes a lot of work to repair relationships and rebuild trust between parents with substance abuse disorders (SUD) and their kids. But women who are working on recovery often do not have a safe place for their kids to visit. And that can present barriers to the goal of family reunification, she said. The new program provides that safe space, where children can come for visits with their moms and even stay overnight…The program offers a Circle of Security parenting class that helps women explore their own childhood traumas and learn to avoid repeating them with their children…
“I’d hear these stories of women sharing their really horrific childhoods, abuse and neglect, and then to be able to see them playing so successfully with their kids … they didn’t have someone who modeled that, but they’re doing it. And they’re understanding the power of that and wanting to change that cycle,” McGuigan said…“Because of a place like this, I was able to stop that cycle, and I can break the chains, and have a relationship with all my children and actually be a mom and be present for them,” she said…“I’m able to be a parent to my child, I’m able to give back to my community today, and I’m able to live with purpose,” she said. “And I’m grateful for all of it.”
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