Permanency Tip of the Week: Week 3 of 5 – Role of Juvenile Justice in Permanency
Addressing the absence of Permanency is NOT a Child Welfare problem. The role of Juvenile Justice in all phases of the Permanency process is to focus on the youth internalizing a better set of behaviors and values that will keep him out of the juvenile justice system while at the same time continuing to focus on the principle that ALL children can and need to experience Permanency in spite of whatever behavior they may have displayed. Too often a child is deemed unadoptable or inappropriate for a family based largely on their criminal record. Often it is the hope and experience of Permanency that can help jumpstart a youth turning his / her life around.
Permanency Story of the Week: Adoption Success Story
The Pascucci Family – After seeing the movie The Blind Side—the story of a homeless teen taken in by a family that supported and encouraged him onto an NFL career—Karen Pascucci was inspired to adopt from foster care. Karen’s husband John immediately agreed. John and Karen have both lived through difficult former marriages and divorces. “We could relate to how a child in foster care must be feeling,” Karen said. “The anxiety. Losing one’s foundation. These are relatable feelings.” “We have more empathy because we’ve been through hard times,” John added. “We have a lot to offer as parents plus the time, lifestyle and an extra bedroom that felt empty.”
Current Permanency Related Articles:
Six Things You Should Know About Growing up in Foster Care
When I was about 12 years old, I was removed from my family and placed into the Tennessee child welfare system as a foster child. I had to pack all my belongings into trash bags and leave the home I knew behind. Roughly five years later, one week before my 18th birthday, I was adopted by my forever family.I was very, very fortunate. I went on to earn undergraduate and law degrees and found a career where I can work every day to help foster children and youth. I work in a program that helps young people who age out of state custody without ever being reunited with their families or finding a new one through adoption. Last week, I was one of 12 foster care advocates honored by the White House as Foster Care Champions of Change. We all can help the 400,000 children in foster care and the 23,000 who will turn 18 and “age out” of foster care alone this year. But to do that, we need more people to understand foster children and the unique challenges they face. Here are six things foster children and youth want you to know…
Every Kid is ONE Caring Adult Away From Being a Success Story – Josh Shipp
Youth Advocate Josh Shipp was a foster kid, class clown, a trouble maker. He was written off, kicked out, and every parents worst nightmare. Yet Josh has an adult who refused to give up on him which eventually changed everything. This TED talk is a stirring call to action for all adults to intentionally invest time with a kid.
Social Work Education Key to Retaining Foster Care Workers, Advocates Say
Antoinette Rucker was 16 years old and looking forward to moving from a foster care group home to a permanent placement with her older sister. But the process dragged on for almost a year, Rucker said, because the social worker handling her transition went on maternity leave and didn’t come back. That meant Rucker had to get to know a new caseworker, who was learning Rucker’s case at the same time, slowing the process. Altogether, Rucker had three different caseworkers during the transition, she said. Dr. Katharine Briar-Lawson, co-principal investigator for the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute, said a lack of specific training contributes to worker turnover.
5 Ways I Cope with the Uncertainty of Foster Parenting
As a foster parent, my family and friends are constantly expressing concerns over how I’m coping with the uncertainty of the future. This comes after they realize that I usually don’t know how long my foster children are going to stay with me or if I’ll even be able to adopt them. Once I finally get through to someone that I have no idea about anything, their face usually turns from quizzical to sorrowful, followed by the “I could never do that” statements and “how can you possibly handle it?” questions.
Up until now, my answer has usually been “not well,” and then we all have an awkward chuckle. But after a bit more soul-searching, I’ve realized that there are a couple of ways that I’ve learned to cope with it all…
Comparing Outcomes for Youth in Treatment Foster Care and Family-style Group Care
Group care programs are often criticized for producing poor outcomes, especially in light of community-based alternatives like treatment foster care that have a stronger evidence base. In this study, data from Girls and Boys Town were used to compare outcomes of youth in treatment foster care (n=112) and group care (n=716) using propensity score matching, a method that can minimize selection bias in nonrandomized designs. Eighteen background covariates were used to develop propensity scores for the likelihood of receiving treatment foster care rather than group care. Several matching methods generated balanced samples on which the outcomes were compared. Results found that group care youth were more likely to be favorably discharged, more likely to return home, and less likely to experience subsequent placement in the first six months after discharge. Legal involvement and residing in a home-like environment at follow-up did not differ. Positive outcomes for group care youth suggest that family-style group care programs may promote effectiveness.
Study of Holocaust survivors finds trauma passed on to children’s genes
New finding is clear example in humans of the theory of epigenetic inheritance: the idea that environmental factors can affect the genes of your children. Genetic changes stemming from the trauma suffered by Holocaust survivors are capable of being passed on to their children, the clearest sign yet that one person’s life experience can affect subsequent generations. The conclusion from a research team at New York’s Mount Sinai hospital led by Rachel Yehuda stems from the genetic study of 32 Jewish men and women who had either been interned in a Nazi concentration camp, witnessed or experienced torture or who had had to hide during the second world war.
They also analyzed the genes of their children, who are known to have increased likelihood of stress disorders, and compared the results with Jewish families who were living outside of Europe during the war. “The gene changes in the children could only be attributed to Holocaust exposure in the parents,” said Yehuda.