Permanency Tip of the Week: What is “New” in Permanency?
With the New Year just underway, tens of thousands of our children and young adults remain in desperate need of Permanency. We need to ask ourselves: What is going to be new and different for them in 2016? The fastest way that we can impact change is to change our own Permanency thoughts, beliefs and actions. A great challenge in the New Year is to find 1 thought, 1 belief and 1 action that we can change to become more in line with securing Permanency for everyone ASAP.
Permanency Story of the Week: Sarah’s Final Placement
Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption – After 11 different placements and one of our Wendy’s Wonderful Kids (WWK) recruiters, Sarah finally has her forever family. Her adoption was finalized days before her 17th birthday, making the week extra memorable. Three years ago, our recruiter was able to facilitate a connection between Sarah and her siblings, which gave her hope and confidence. She then started to speak as a guest for foster parent training as an advocate for older youth adoption. A family that had attended the training had interest in Sarah, and she was placed in their home last winter. In the beginning of this month, Sarah’s adoption was complete, and for the first time, she can finally be a teenager.
Current Permanency Related Articles:
In Easthampton Village (MA), Everyone Helps the Children
The 5-year-old boy in the green shirt with “Cool Little Bro” written across the chest had just thumped 81-year-old Mary Steele in the nose with a balloon. Steele, who was baby-sitting the excited child for his foster mother, stopped fast and flashed a look of mock surprise. “Now, you have to give me a kiss right on the nose,” Steele said. The boy, clearly happy, did not consider this a chore.
Laughter and smiles have not come easily to the child, who was removed from his biological parents a year ago because of domestic violence and substance abuse. But now, engaged and embraced, he is part of a pioneering social project called the Treehouse community, a 60-home village built from scratch nearly a decade ago in a broad former meadow near Mount Tom.
Note – Be sure to watch the tremendous video that is inside the article.
“Every Student Succeeds Act” Includes Groundbreaking Provisions for Students in Foster Care
In late 2015, President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the first major overhaul of federal education law in more than a decade. ESSA, which replaces “No Child Left Behind”, contains landmark provisions aimed at improving the educational outcomes of students in foster care including allowing youth in foster care to remain in the same school even when their foster home placements are changed and requiring schools to immediately enroll children in foster care after a school move. The new law also requires points of contact in schools and state education agencies, collaborative plans for transporting students in foster care to their “school of origin”, and tracking and making public achievement and graduation data for these students as a distinct subgroup.
The law also affords significant protections for youth in the juvenile justice system. This includes providing better planning and coordination of education between facilities and local districts, supporting reentry to the community for youth returning from juvenile justice placements, including timely re-enrollment in appropriate educational placements, creating opportunities to earn credits in secondary, postsecondary, or career/technical programming, requiring transfer of secondary credits to the home school district upon reentry and prioritizing attainment of a regular high school diploma.
‘Detectives’ Unearth Long-Lost Links for Kids Needing Adoption
Alisa Matheson hoped she could find someone to adopt the likable 15-year-old girl whose previous adoption had fallen through, landing her back in foster care. “She had no people who came to visit her or knew her who weren’t paid to do so,” said Matheson, an adoption recruiter with Evolve, a private, nonprofit Twin Cities adoption agency.
Using an online search engine and the teen’s records, Matheson sent letters to anyone who had known her before or during the 15 years she’d been in foster care, including biological relatives. She told letter recipients she was compiling a “family storybook” for the girl and was trying to collect anecdotes and pictures. Immediately, the agency got a call from the girl’s cousin, who had been trying to locate her for years. Matheson reunited them, and they are moving toward permanent adoption.
The Body Remembers What the Mind Wants to Forget: Healing Together After Trauma
Ana’s* small hands were clenched and raw. “Are you okay?” I asked. She said nothing, but the pattern of dents and cracks punched into her bedroom wall spoke volumes. As a children’s attorney, I was representing Ana in proceedings against her parent. By the age of 11, Ana had endured repeated assault at the hands of her father — sexual, physical, and psychological. Afraid and alone, Ana buried the pain inside by releasing emotion wordlessly, with her fists. After surviving a final, violent attack, she confided to a close friend who reported the incident to a teacher. Shortly before Ana was to appear in court, though, she grew conflicted over testifying about her abuse.
North Carolina Children’s Home Society Making Statewide Difference
A Greensboro, NC organization is having success helping move children out of foster care and into permanent homes. The Children’s Home Society is running a pilot project created by the General Assembly that is making a positive difference in some foster children’s lives. A state law passed in 2013 by the General Assembly created the “Permanency Innovation Initiative,” which began in 2014 as a pilot project, with the Children’s Home Society chosen to implement the project. The goal of the initiative is to move children in foster care into a permanent home.
Utilizing and Creating Adoption Support Groups
Adopting a child can be a very joyous and rewarding experience for both the adoptive child and the adoptive parent(s); however, along with rewarding experiences come various challenges. Adoption support groups can offer an environment for adoptive parents to discuss these challenges and share similar stories.
A tip sheet developed by the Coalition for Child, Youth and Families and the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families discusses the different types of adoption support groups available to adoptive parents and what they can offer, in addition to providing guidelines on how to begin a support group on your own, either in-person or virtually.