Greetings Permanency Champions,
Permanency Tip of the Week: Permanency Centered Goals – Education
Permanency centered goals in Education can help ensure that every decision we make involving our Youth has Permanency as their foundation. This area also includes the role that educational support, interventions, and especially success can serve in responding to and viewing actions of academic, social and behavioral challenges displayed by our Youth. Given the incredible instability that many of our Youth experience, securing stable and well-supported education at the academically appropriate level is critical. This can serve as a significant source of Permanency in terms of a consistent team of teachers and administrators, friends/classmates as well as the opportunity to experience success through complete something that they started (school year, graduation, etc.).
Permanency Success Story of the Week: Bubba and Angie Watson Share Their Difficult Journey to Adoption
Golf Week – Bubba Watson has enjoyed remarkable success on the PGA Tour, amassing 11 victories, two Masters green jackets and $40.33 million in career earnings. The Bagdad, Fla., native and former Georgia Bulldog Tuesday opened up to NBC’s Megyn Kelly Tuesday about what is easily his greatest success story – the adoption of two children with his wife, Angie. Watson’s wife is unable to have children of her own due to a long-standing medical condition – something she disclosed to Watson on their second date. Watson “didn’t skip a beat,” she says, and the couple eventually wed.
Bubba and Angie Watson’s struggle to adopt was far more difficult that one might expect – as the couple was rejected three times by potential birth mothers. All the same time, they were trying contend with their infertility. They eventually adopted two children, Caleb and Dakota. The couple is now part of a foundation sponsored by Jockey that provides post-adoption support.
Bubba Watson said it was especially important for him to adopt children from the United States. “For me, she’s from Canada, for me, it was about helping our own country, our own people,” Bubba Watson said. And their children are unquestionably theirs. “I never once looked in our kids’ eyes and not thought that God created them for us to raise them,” Angie Watson said. “I have never blinked for a minute and thought they were adopted…”
Permanency Related Articles:
May is National Foster Care Month
Annie E Casey Foundation – For 31 days each year, the nation’s attention shifts to focus on the stories of children and families whose lives have been affected by foster care. The pivot is intentional — and dates back to 1988 when President Ronald Reagan issued a proclamation establishing May as National Foster Care Month. Today, this precedent endures. It recognizes the needs of kids and youth in foster care and celebrates the many supporters who are making a powerful and positive difference in their live…
For thousands of Americans, the focus on foster care does not fade with the month of May. To help support three groups who navigate the system every day — kids in care, foster parents and child welfare professionals — the Casey Foundation has compiled lists of relevant key resources. 1) Kids in foster care; 2) Foster parents; 3) Child welfare experts.
How Compassion Can Triumph Over Toxic Childhood Trauma
The Conversation – New research shows that when mothers who have experienced childhood trauma feel supported by the people around them – such as therapists, physicians, friends and neighbours – their risk of pregnancy complications is substantially reduced.
In a recent piece on the television show 60 Minutes, Oprah Winfrey discussed childhood trauma — shining a public spotlight on the lasting effects of abuse and adversity in childhood. Oprah herself is a survivor of childhood abuse. Adverse childhood experiences, commonly called ACEs, include witnessing verbal or physical conflict between parents and having a parent with a mental illness or substance-abuse issue. They also include parent separation, divorce and incarceration and the experience of neglect or abuse (sexual, physical or emotional) as a child.
ACEs are common. Approximately 60 per cent of the general population report experiencing at least one before the age of 18. More than eight per cent of the population report experiencing four or more ACEs. Research has consistently found that the more adverse childhood experiences a person has, the greater their risk for later health problems.
Our research group investigates how ACEs affect women’s physical and psychological health in pregnancy. We study how adversities are “inherited” or passed from parent to child, as well as how the risks of ACEs in pregnant women can be reduced. Our latest finding suggests that when mothers who have experienced ACEs feel supported by the people around them, their risk of having pregnancy complications is substantially reduced. In essence, feeling supported by friends and family can counteract the negative effects of having ACEs…
Trauma Therapy for Kids Should Be Fun & Play – The Magic Rainbow Hug
ACEs Connection – In most situations of child abuse, flight or fight is not an option. How can a little child fight with or escape from an abusive parent/caregiver? Most kids will go into ‘Freeze Mode” when faced with unrelenting trauma. They just shut down emotionally and physically when in conflict or facing an angry and abusive parent…
To overcome the freezing response that has become hard-wired into a child’s traumatized psyche, he/she needs to experience the healing power of touch. To feel and experience one’s body in a safe environment is an essential part of healing…
Using touch in a fun way helps children overcome fear and anxiety through playful relaxation. Positive suggestions are interspersed throughout the story to help children draw upon their own inner strengths and abilities. The story is designed to help children learn relaxation skills and methods of calming while increasing the bonds between parents (caregivers) and children…So, let’s make healing, joyful and positive for traumatized kids, something they look forward to doing which unbeknownst to them facilitates their healing.
Finding Foster Children a Family When They Turn 21
New York Times – Yaridania Betancourt, 40, is a family recruiter for You Gotta Believe: The Older Child Adoption and Permanency Movement in New York. 1) What is a family recruiter? 2) How do you find such people? 3) How old are the people you are helping? 4) Is this a widespread problem? 5) What do you do if there is no one willing to undertake a long-term commitment? 6) How do you match up prospective parents and young people? 7) Who wants to get involved? 8) `How long have you been doing this? 8) What’s the hardest part of your job?
UMPS CARE Charities – All-Star Scholarship
UMPS Care – Education is an important part of life. In baseball terms, it gives you a healthy lead as you round the bases. But not everyone gets the same opportunity for higher education. That’s why UMPS CARE Charities partnered with The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption (DTFA) to offer the UMPS CARE Charities All-Star Scholarship.
The UMPS CARE Charities All-Star Scholarship is for children adopted later in life in order to help provide a college education to students who otherwise might not be able to afford one. UMPS CARE Charities will award a total of $30,000 in scholarship funding for 2018…
Deadline: Monday, May 14, 2018
Questions? Contact our Program Director – Jennifer Jopling – 801-599-1706.
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Take care and keep up the Permanency work – Our children, youth, young adults, families, and communities are depending on it!