Dr. Greg Manning

A Professional Trainer, Keynote Speaker and Consultant

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Permanency in the News – Week of 1/28/19

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Permanency Tip of the Week: Permanency/Adoption Readiness – Dealing with Ambivalence

For Youth who previously displayed positivity and eagerness related to finalizing the Permanency/Adoption process, another potential challenge we might face is a gradual or sudden display of ambivalence towards the process.  Responding to a significant life change with ambivalence can be seen as another form of self-protection, particularly for many of our Youth who have experienced significant loss, betrayal, and disenfranchisement.  When we notice this development, we must pause, step back and focus on empathizing with and validating the likely wide-range feelings that our Youth are likely experiencing.  While they may outwardly show a lack of concern/interest, that likely is a shield protecting their deeper, stronger, and potentially more painful feelings of loss.  By given our Youth time, space, and support this period of ambivalence can become a minor blip on the radar screen as opposed to a unresolvable barrier to Permanency/Adoption.

Permanency Success Story of the Week: Touchdown! 6 NFL Players Touched by Adoption

Adoptions with Love – Football season is here! With all the hustle and bustle surrounding the 2018-2019 NFL season, and with the Patriots-Rams Super Bowl just around the corner, Adoptions With Love reflects on some of the many NFL athletes who have been touched by adoption. Below, you will find iconic football players who are also loving adoptive parents. You will read about NFL players who were adopted at a young age. You will also learn the stories of the players who spent many years in foster care before finding success on the football field. All of these NFL athletes, whether adoptees or parents, have inspiring adoption stories  to share. 1) Michael Oher; 2) Daunte Culpepper; 3) Kyle Van Noy; 4) Colin Kaepernick; 5) DeMarcus Ware; 6) Joe Berger

Permanency Related Articles:

Removal from the Home: Resulting Trauma

UPenn Collaborative on Community Integration – It is vitally important to consider the physical and psychological safety of children living in foster care. Every year, 2 million children come into contact with the child welfare system due to investigations of parental abuse or neglect (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2004). Many of these children are removed from their homes and placed into the foster care system. Foster care is known to produce poor social outcomes, such as high delinquency rates, high teen birth rates, and lower earnings. Furthermore, researchers have found that children on the verge of placement tend to have better outcomes when they are allowed to stay with their families; this is especially true for older children (Doyle, 2007).

Appointment of New CA Surgeon General Puts Spotlight on Early Childhood Adversity

The impact of stress and trauma on people’s physical and mental health looks set to become a central focus of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration in the wake of his appointment of the state’s first surgeon general.  This week, Gov. Newsom tapped Nadine Burke Harris to fill the newly created position. Burke Harris is a physician and pioneering leader in the field of toxic stress and health. She founded the San Francisco-based Center for Youth Wellness, an organization that’s working with pediatric clinics nationwide to develop best practices for screening and treating children at risk for toxic stress. She will be sworn in Feb 11…

Researchers and health experts increasingly understand that trauma in childhood, such as abuse, exposure to violence, or having a parent with a mental illness, can wreak havoc on children’s brains and bodies as they grow, including their hormone and immune systems. This can lead to immediate health problems, ranging from behavioral difficulties to severe asthma, and also heightens children’s risk for chronic illnesses later in life such as heart disease and diabetes…

FYA Releases First-of-its-Kind Report on Foster Youth-Led Organizing


Foster Youth Action – FYA is proud to announce the publication of an important new report on foster youth engagement.  Drawing on research and FYA’s own experience, we lift up the power and the promise of grassroots, youth-led action for individual AND systems transformation. 

Inside the pages of this publication, we make the case for this approach, highlighting the significant individual and systems impact potential, and describe in detail a set of six practices specifically for organizing with youth with lived experience in the foster care system.  Readers will also find some important stories that provide great examples of this work in action in multiple communities. As the report strongly asserts, youth organizing is a powerful strategy and should be expanded. We conclude report by lifting some key considerations for the field in taking next steps to grow this strategy nationally. 

This report, which was made possible by a grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, is available for download here.  FYA organized a national webinar to launch this report, featuring young leaders and adult allies from California Youth Connection and Colorado’s Project Foster Power.  See a recording of this one hour webinar here, as well as coverage of the report and webinar in the pages of the Chronicle of Social Change here. 

Apprenticeships, A Favorite of Trump Administration, Carry Major Potential for Foster Youth

Social Justice Solutions – This past spring, Washington became the first state in the nation to pass legislation specifically designed to help foster youth access apprenticeship opportunities, which offer a steady path to full-time employment in a highly-skilled trade.  Researchers have found that foster youth are likely to earn even less than other low-income youth living around them. Bill sponsor Sen. Kevin Ranker (D) declared his intent to expand opportunities for children facing “immense obstacles or lack the support of their families…”

Foster youth represent one population in particular that could benefit from these new economic opportunities, including the 23,000 individuals who age-out of the foster care system every year. The statistics are grim. According to the National Foster Youth Initiative, foster youth have a less than 3 percent chance of earning a college degree in their lifetime, and only 50 percent of foster youth who age out of the system will have some form of gainful employment by age 24.

But how can foster youth take advantage of expanded apprenticeships? What could help make such opportunities more accessible to them?…

Providing Background Information on Children to Prospective Adoptive Parents

Child Welfare Information Gateway – One of the most important steps in providing permanency for children through adoption is ensuring that prospective adoptive families have detailed background information about the child, his or her birth parents, and family background to inform their decision and prepare for the adoption. This information will be very important as the child grows older and may have questions related to his or her identity. Fully disclosing all available information is a child welfare professional’s legal responsibility as well as an essential element of successful adoptions. This bulletin is written for child welfare professionals who work with families interested in adoption and/or who are about to receive a referral for an adoptive placement.

Sincerely,

Dr. Greg Manning