Permanency Tip of the Week: Addressing Permanency at Age 18
As we approach 18, it is developmentally appropriate to consider what life will be like when we can finally make decisions on our own. For youth who have developed healthy attachments with their parent(s), this can be a gradual process supported by their sources of Permanency. For our youth in foster care without Permanency, this can be a radical, scary and overwhelming experience. Validating the magnitude of this experience for the Youth and guiding them to explore the role that Permanency can play in their life is important to opening up the possibility of them embracing Permanency as an adult.
Permanency Story of the Week: Making Dreams Come True – 4 Teens Discuss Life in Foster Care & Adoption
These are who our kids are. Wonderful, resilient, kind-hearted, hopeful. We love them. Please share their stories and help us find every waiting child a Forever Family. Special thanks to ChildNet for allowing us to make this video, to the Children’s Services Council of Broward County, and NBC 6 for making Forever.
Current Permanency related articles:
10 Ways to Stop 23,000 Children from Aging Out of Foster Care – Or, how to quit making excuses and do our job
Rita Soronen – Executive Director – Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption – When I talk to audiences not familiar with the child welfare system, I share startling numbers – more than six million children last year were involved in reports of abuse or neglect and more than 400,000 were in foster care. And today, 101,000 children are waiting to get adopted. These are children, I explain, who have been abused or neglected at such a level that they have been permanently severed from their family of origin and are now simply waiting for a family to adopt them. As I speak, I witness these truths sink in through quiet gasps and concerned faces.
This is not the only crisis our children experience. My explanation continues: Each year we fail more than 20,000 children, as we make excuses for not finding them adoptive homes. We allow them to age out of care without the family we promised. And I watch my audience’s concern turn to confusion and then anger. How could we fail already vulnerable children? What happens to these children? Why is the system not working for so many?
Fostering Dreams Through Dance
Melanie Buttarazzi, daughter of Robert Michaels, is an extraordinary professional dancer who danced for artists such as J.Lo, Pit Bull, NeYo, and Pharrell Williams. In August 2013, Buttarazzi embarked on an idea to document how dance can have a life-changing impact of foster youth and their self-expression. She developed a program called Fostering Dreams Through Dance, to empower and inspire foster youth through the art of dance. She has done “several outreach programs a few years back in Toronto and Los Angeles, a side segment to work at schools with underprivileged kids and taught them dance, music and art.”
She and her dance choreographers will work with up to 15 teenage foster youths with their age ranging from 14-15 years old. The project is a collaboration with Los Angeles-based First Star, a nonprofit that places 25 foster youths at UCLA each summer to take a summer program of classes. Buttarazzi and her team of world renowned choreographers will work with the foster youth group for 30 days and document the impact of dance on their lives.
May in National Foster Care Month – Children’s Bureau
May is National Foster Care Month, a month set aside to acknowledge foster parents, family members, volunteers, mentors, policymakers, child welfare professionals, and other members of the community who help children and youth in foster care find permanent homes and connections. During National Foster Care Month, we renew our commitment to ensuring a bright future for the nearly 400,000 children and youth in foster care, and we celebrate all those who make a meaningful difference in their lives.
FosterClub All-Stars Advocate at National At-Risk Education Network Conference
Four FosterClub All-Stars participated as keynote speakers in a panel discussion at the National At-Risk Education Network (NAREN) Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. As alumni of the foster care system, the FosterClub All-Stars discussed personal educational experiences while in foster care with 250 educators, social workers and other at-risk youth professionals. The All-Stars gave voice to realities involved with transitioning into higher education as they transition or age out of foster care.
A financial education curriculum designed specifically for young people in or formerly in foster care. The curriculum was designed by the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative as a component of the Opportunity Passport™.
3-5-7 Model© and the parent-child relationship during placement.
The benefits of protecting the relationship for both the child and the parent are so great that it demands our attention. These benefits include: 1) Reducing a child’s sense of abandonment; 2) Protecting child and family identity; 3) Helping to maintain engagement with the parent; 4) Providing opportunities to re-build the parent-child relationship. Two concepts guided by the framework of the 3-5-7 Model© can provide direction to our decision making. These concepts are: 1) CHILDREN LOVE THEIR PARENTS, PARENTS LOVE THEIR CHILDREN; 2) TERMINATING PARENTAL RIGHTS DOES NOT TERMINATE LOVE.
I talk about these concepts in my training and for a refresher you can read about them in my book the 3-5-7 Model: A Practice Approach to Permanency on pages 33 – 36.