Permanency Tip of the Week: Adoption Series – Week 1 – Whose Idea was this Adoption Anyway?
In working with families who are approaching Adoption, it is crucial that we engage them in a series of in-depth conversations about the adoption-related motivations of all those involved. We may find that everyone is not on the same page as it relates to the level of interest and desire in pursuing adoption. This is a good thing since it provides us with the opportunity to walk through any issues that might serve as barriers to the Adoption being successful. It is important that we validate the full range of thoughts and feelings that individual family members may hold about Adoption. The outcomes of these conversations can range from pursuing Adoption to pausing the pursuit of Adoption, and finally to stopping the Adoption process. All these outcomes are good, both for the family and the potential Adoptee(s).
Next week, we will address the range of thoughts and feelings on the part of the Adoptee.
Permanency Success Story of the Week: Virtual Adoption Gives Siblings Forever Home
Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption – KIRO-7 (Seattle) – Terri Nakamura, of Washington, fostered siblings Michael, Roman, and Lilliana for more than three years. After two unsuccessful adoptions with other families, Terri made the decision to pursue adoption. “I just knew that they were already where they belonged,” she said. But when COVID-19 hit, Terri was worried that the family’s dream of making things official would not come true this year. Through our Wendy’s Wonderful Kids program, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption has been working closely with local partners, like the Children’s Home Society of Washington, to find creative ways to keep adoptions moving…
“Now, we have a forever home,” says Lilliana.
Permanency Related Articles:
For Kids Unsafe at Home, School Closure Increases Risk for Trauma
Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (JJIE) – In January, Sharral Dean, a therapist at the Family Counseling Center of Central Georgia, was seeing about 30 young clients a week. At any given time, five to seven of them were what Dean calls “at-risk” — more likely to experience violence at home, at higher risk for depression, anxiety, fighting in school, and entering the juvenile justice system.
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the shelter-in-place orders that came with it, many of her clients have shifted to receiving therapy by videoconference. But not her at-risk ones — they simply stopped showing up. “We’re not hearing from these kids,” she said, and “it’s a great concern.” What worries Dean and Patty Gibbs, the center’s executive director is that for these youths, the silence reflects more than a digital divide. “Without school, where are those kids going, and what are they doing?” Gibbs said. She’s seen the reports of rising domestic violence rates since the onset of the pandemic; she fears the kids who have already seen too much violence are now seeing even more.
To youth at risk for experiencing violence or other trauma at home, the school closures translate to losses that go well beyond missed opportunities for learning and in-person graduations and proms. School’s role as a source of nutrition for many youth has been well-documented — but school may also be the only setting that addresses a vulnerable child’s need for good role models, for safety, for redemption. For kids who are safer at school than at home, what happens when the school shuts down?…
Through Adopted Eyes: A Collection of Memoirs from Adoptees
Welcome! My name is Elena and I was adopted from Russia. In 2016 I started collecting voices of adoptees – our stories, values, and thoughts about adoption. This book has been a labor of love and I can’t wait till you get to read it! This book includes my own story of adoption and the stories of many other adoptees who vary in age, heritage, and experiences. May this book be a valuable resource for all those in the adoption triad.
Child Welfare and The Fight Against Despair
The Imprint – Classic experiments in the 1970s demonstrated that it’s not so much adverse events that result in deleterious consequences, but rather a lack of perceived control over those events. Subjects in these experiments who learned that they could not influence their challenging situations eventually gave up trying. As a result, they experienced a broad range of long-lasting effects, including decreased immune function and increased sickness, signs of depression, and elevations in drug use, including alcohol. Researchers named this condition “learned helplessness.”
Our present moment in child welfare will yield this phenomenon in abundance if we are not careful. These parents and children live in a shrinking present and face an uncertain future. Regardless of where they are on the continuum of services, kids and families who were already hanging on by their fingertips are now more likely to fall into the chasm of total collapse.
The context for this widespread despair has far-reaching implications for our primary prevention and alternative family support models. We should be vigilant about the much-discussed “surge” in child welfare cases, but far more concerned about the horizontal spread of futility and apathy among parents already utilizing social services…
HHS Could Enhance Support for Grandparents and Other Relative Caregivers
US Government Accountability Office (GAO) – Grandparents, other relatives, and family friends often step in when parents cannot care for their children. In 2018, about 2.7 million children lived with such caregivers—mostly outside of foster care. The United States Department of Health and Human Services has established programs to help these caregivers with the financial, legal, or other challenges they face. However, many states are not using these optional programs, and some state and local officials told us they would like more guidance.
We recommended that HHS regularly share information and best practices with states on using these programs to better support caregivers.
National Association of Counties (NACO) – On August 7, Representatives Danny Davis (D-Ill.) and Jackie Walorski (R-In.), the Chair and Ranking Member of the Worker & Family Support – Ways and Means Committee, introduced a bipartisan proposal to support the child welfare system as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. The legislation, the Supporting Foster Youth and Families through the Pandemic Act (H.R. 7947), would increase funding and create temporary flexibilities for programs targeting older foster youth, child abuse prevention, and kinship care providers.
Counties fully or partially administer the child welfare system in 11 states. For these county child welfare agencies, COVID-19 has caused new challenges and disruptions in ongoing efforts to implement new federal requirements for prevention services, connect children with kinship caregivers, and support home visiting. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has left young people in transition from foster care to adulthood particularly vulnerable, many of whom already face significant life challenges…
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