Permanency Tip of the Week: You Cannot Shelter at Home, Without a Home
All of us have been impacted, to some degree, by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of us have experienced the loss of work, activities, and educational opportunities due to the Shelter at Home orders. Imagine what it might be like if you do not have a stable home at which to shelter in? What if you have had to repeatedly shift where you are sheltering due to not having the permanency to know that if you have a really bad day, you will not be forced to leave? Let us reflect on our own individual experiences of these Shelter at Home and recommit ourselves to ensuring that all our Youth can have a permanent, loving, family home.
Permanency Success Story of the Week: Toddler Who Spent 700 Days in Foster Care Gets Adoption Car Parade
New York Post – Their love can drive the distance. Isla Moody’s foster family had waited two years to be able to formally adopt her. But when the big day finally came, the coronavirus pandemic prevented them from celebrating in the way they’d planned. Evan and Cayela Moody had barely had their foster-care license for a month in 2018 when they got a call that a premature, 4-pound baby needed a home, reports “Good Morning America.”
After picking up the newborn from the hospital, the idea of permanently parenting was quickly proposed.
“We’d had Isla for 48 hours and somebody asked if she needed us for adoption, would we want to?” Cayela tells the outlet. “I brought it up to Evan and he said, ‘You won’t need to ask me again. If she needs us for adoption, I’m all in.’ ” In February, after years of uncertainty, the family excitedly learned the adoption had officially gone through. But COVID-19 was already rapidly sweeping the globe and the actual adoption ceremony was put indefinitely on hold, the family’s local Fox News outlet reports.
On April 30, the big day, at last, arrived: After 700 days in their foster care, Isla was formally adopted by Evan and Cayela in a Zoom ceremony. The parents and their four biological children attended from their Jacksonville, Florida, living room while some two dozen friends and family were also present, through the airwaves, for the moment Isla became a Moody. Not satisfied with the virtual event, the Moodys decided to also hold a real-world happening while also being mindful of pandemic etiquette. With the help of foster-care support organization Fostering Hope, they threw little Isla a car parade…
Permanency Related Articles:
But I Adopted My Child at Birth. What do You Mean Trauma?
Calo Family Programs – It is not uncommon for adoptive parents to come to us feeling out of options for their difficult child and overwhelmed about what could have created all of these DSM diagnoses and intense feelings and behaviors. Especially if the child was adopted at or near birth.
“We adopted our son at birth. We brought him home from the hospital ourselves and have done nothing but love him.”
Does this sound too familiar? If so, then why are you now being told that all of that had something to do with the issues today?…
Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World
Amazon – Humans are social creatures: In this simple and obvious fact lies both the problem and the solution to the current crisis of loneliness. In his groundbreaking book, the 19th surgeon general of the United States Dr. Vivek Murthy makes a case for loneliness as a public health concern: a root cause and contributor to many of the epidemics sweeping the world today from alcohol and drug addiction to violence to depression and anxiety. Loneliness, he argues, is affecting not only our health, but also how our children experience school, how we perform in the workplace, and the sense of division and polarization in our society.
But, at the center of our loneliness is our innate desire to connect. We have evolved to participate in the community, to forge lasting bonds with others, to help one another, and to share life experiences. We are, simply, better together.
The lessons in Together have immediate relevance and application.
Underprepared Staff Are Doing the Most Difficult Work in Child Welfare
The Chronicle of Social Change – Kevin King – Seneca Family of Agencies – Direct care staff who work with youth are our most immediate front line of support for youth who require additional adult intervention in school-based and residential environments. However, through no fault of their own, these individuals are on average the most undertrained, under-supervised, underpaid, and seemingly undervalued paid professionals our youth come in contact with.
Now more than ever, with the COVID-19 pandemic exposing the vulnerabilities of the industry, it is time to invest in providing the tools, skills, and knowledge these often-young professionals need for the job.
If we truly wish to put our best foot forward in changing the lives of vulnerable children, we must recognize the fact that all adults who interact with youth living in high-cost care settings need exceptional training, supervision, and ongoing professional development and growth. We must understand that this is intensely personal and complicated work that requires encouragement, constant reflection, validation, correction, and overall support…
National Foster Care Month – May 2020
United States Congress – This week, the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives recognize May as National Foster Care Month by introducing the National Foster Care Month Resolution (H.Res.966) and sharing a special message on the Senate floor. In May 1988, U.S. President Ronald Reagan first designated the month of May as a time to celebrate and remember foster youth, foster parents, caseworkers, and all those who work to improve the lives of those in the U.S. foster care system. On Wednesday, U.S. Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), shared a special National Foster Care Month message on the Senate floor and asked his colleagues to support this resolution. He also highlighted the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is having on vulnerable children and families.
Fox 40 – Jackson, MS – Chelsea Phaire is just finishing fifth grade this year but she could graduate in kindness: she’s already helped thousands of her peers find joy and comfort in art.
It all started in August of last year, when the 10-year-old girl from Danbury, Conn., asked for art supplies for her birthday so she could build kits for kids affected by school shootings. Now, since the coronavirus pandemic struck, she has been sending them to children in homeless facilities and in foster care to try and cheer them up.
“It means a lot because of the coronavirus,” Chelsea told Fox News over the phone. “It’s just really nice to know kids are helping kids during this really stressful time. It really makes me feel happy.” Chelsea, who said she was bullied in school, turned to art when she lost her swim coach to gun violence a few years ago.
She founded Chelsea’s Charity last year to help others and, as a first step, she set up an Amazon Wishlist. When someone donates enough supplies, she explained, she fills the art kits with markers, crayons, colored pencils, sketch pads and paper, gel pens, and coloring books. Sometimes she adds something fun, like colored pipe cleaners. Before the pandemic, Chelsea and her mom traveled to shelters and schools from Oklahoma to New Jersey, dropping off the art kits and, in some cases, teaching kids how to use art to boost their mental health and express themselves…
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