Permanency Tip of the Week: What do I Provide in the Permanency Relationship?
When we look at what each person provides in the Permanency relationship, the Adult’s perspective can be a little easier to see since it encompasses the love, care, work and mentoring provided by a healthy parent. As noted in our last Permanency tip (7/23/18), the experience of these qualities within the Permanency relationship can simultaneously be novel, challenging and rewarding for our Youth – particularly with experience living in out of home settings. The successful development and application, by our Youth, of the four skills described previously (6/18/18, 6/25/18, 7/2/18, and 7/9/18) will provide the platform for the Youth to gradually being to reciprocate the love, care, and work in the relationship.
Permanency Success Story of the Week: Another You Gotta Believe Family Finalized their Adoption this Month!
You Gotta Believe – Jim and Ken (whose name is actually Nozomu) started their parenting courses with a parent orientation in 2014. They managed to complete the courses that same year, and they began their search for additions to their family. Although it took a while, they met their kids in June 2016 – siblings Helen and Reniel. After that, their patience was tried because it was not until December that the siblings were approved to move in permanently. There was a very happy ending (or new beginning) on Friday, July 27th, with the finalization. Believe it or not, the adoption was performed via FaceTime to save the family a trip to Massachusetts.
Permanency Related Articles:
7 Things Everyone Should Know About Foster Care
Foster Fight – On any given day, there are over 400,000 foster youth living in the United States. I believe most people have a genuine interest in protecting our country’s most vulnerable youth, but for one reason or another, that interest doesn’t always translate into interest in foster care. Somehow, foster care remains somewhat of an obscure niche in American society.
According to our most recent statistics, the outcomes for foster youth are appalling. Of the 400,000 foster youth in the United States, more than 100,000 are waiting to be adopted…The first step to helping is becoming more educated on the foster care system and the general experiences that foster youth go through.
So, here’s 7 things everyone should know about foster care…1. Foster care was originally designed to be a temporary solution. 2. Entering the foster care system can be a scary experience. 3. Foster care and adoption are not synonymous.4. Aging out is a weird concept. 5. You don’t have to be a foster parent or social worker to help foster youth. 6. Foster youth have everyday kid problems. 7. We’re not just foster youth.
National Child Welfare Workforce Institute – Workforce Development Month
National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (NCWWI) – Child welfare work is not rocket science; it is much harder and more complicated, and often requires life-changing decisions by child welfare professionals. The reality of the challenges of child welfare work—low pay, a ton of paperwork, massive caseloads, and upset parents—masks the motivation of competent committed, and resilient child welfare staff who believe they can make a difference in a world of troubles and hard knocks. And with persistence and skills, they do make a difference!
The child welfare workforce is an agency’s most important asset and a community’s link to improved outcomes for children, youth and families. During this month of celebration for workforce development, the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute is honored to serve and support those who tackle the hard work of child welfare.
Review the fliers, Workforce Development Month and 8 Resources to Support the Workforce, to determine ways to celebrate the child welfare workforce during the month of September. To learn more about why the child welfare workforce matters and the high cost of turnover to those needing their support, view our infographic.
Child Trends – Youth involved in both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems—a specific high-needs population—often experience a host of negative outcomes beyond those experienced by their peers involved in only one (or neither) system. These outcomes include higher rates of homelessness, mental health problems, and joblessness. These “dually involved” youth are also more likely to engage in both nonviolent (such as stealing) and violent (such as fighting) delinquent or criminal behaviors in adolescence and young adulthood. Such behaviors, along with childhood experiences of abuse and neglect (or maltreatment), can impact the well-being of these youth and their ability to become self-sufficient adults.
With this in mind, two essential factors can help identify policy and practice solutions: an understanding of the relationship between child maltreatment and delinquent or criminal behavior, and of whether certain protective factors may buffer youth from engaging in these behaviors…
Key Findings: 1) Some protective factors were helpful for all youth—not just those who experienced maltreatment. 2) Some protective factors were especially helpful for youth who had experienced maltreatment. 3) Protective factors benefit all youth, regardless of individual characteristics.
Should Kinship Care be the Default Option for Kids in Foster Care?
American Enterprise Institute – Children belong with their families. Who could object to this idea? But when it comes to placing children who have been abused or neglected into other homes, there is good reason to wonder whether extended family is the best option…All of which is to say that there are plenty of circumstances under which a relative is the best option for placing a child. But the pendulum has swung too far in this direction. And now it seems that bureaucrats are making such decisions for nefarious (perhaps even racial) reasons and without considering the potential damage to children caused by placing them with strangers in strange places who may or may not be capable of caring for them. Blood ties are not the only ties that bind.
Dispelling the Myth of Child Abuse
Annie Wright – Unfortunately, collectively, we as a society seem to believe that the “only” kind of abuse that “counts” is physical. And that if something else happened to you as a child beyond being physically harmed, this “couldn’t have been abuse.” And that’s not true. It’s a big myth about childhood abuse. And it’s frankly not helpful to believe in the course of your own personal healing work.
I really do think it’s important – painful yes, but important – to talk about and to recognize exactly what abuse is because many, particularly those who grew up in dysfunctional or chaotic family homes, may, in fact, have a history of abuse but are unwilling or unable to identify it as such. But when we do, when we can accurately confront and validate our personal history, we allow ourselves opportunities for healing as adults.
So today, I want to dispel the myth that there’s “only” one kind of abuse and share information and examples with you about what also counts as child (or adult) abuse in the hope that you may be able to see and validate yourself and your story more clearly, and use this information to support your own healing process…It is a myth and a disservice to children and adults to consider the “only” form of child abuse physical abuse. It is a myth that I hope I dispelled with some additional psychoeducation in today’s article…
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- Take care and keep up the Permanency work – Our children, youth, young adults, families, and communities are depending on it!
Sincerely,
Dr. Greg Manning