Permanency Tip of the Week: Dealing with Grief and Loss & Other Issues
The Youth and Young Adults in Foster Care that we serve often are not dealing with just their grief and loss issues. Those alone likely represent a significant challenge to address and overcome. We must be aware of other personal and community issues that they might be dealing with including violence, substance abuse, sexuality / identity issues, education and employment. In looking at what issue do we deal with first, a good rule of thumb to use is choose the one that will help bring the most stability and experience of safety to their life. The other issues, all important, can then fall into line based on a collaborative priority assessment with the Youth or Young Adult.
Permanency Story of the Week: Teen’s Selfless Act Leads to Another Girl’s Dream Come True
A teenage girl had one wish, and it was to give her wish away to someone less fortunate. The Make-A-Wish Foundation made it happen. January 2nd was the day Sylvia Yoerke’s wish came true. Her lifelong illness led her to the Make-A-Wish foundation. For two years, Sylvia waited patiently for her first wish – to meet someone she admired – to be granted. When it couldn’t happen, her new wish was to give her wish to another girl in foster care.
Current Permanency Related Articles:
Congress Moves to Confront Military Child Abuse with Talia’s Law
The House on Tuesday passed a bill that would require anyone employed by the Defense Department to report cases of suspected child abuse on military installations to state child protective service agencies in addition to reporting such suspected crimes up their chain of command.
Chapin-Hall Report Urges Detailed Strategy To Reduce Group Care
A new policy brief by Chapin Hall and the Chadwick Center, Using Evidence to Accelerate the Safe and Effective Reduction of Congregate Care for Youth Involved with Child Welfare was released in the past week. The research could be important in light of the Senate Finance Committee’s still-in-development Families First Act which could potentially open up some Title IV-E foster care funding to limited in-home, substance use and mental health services while also placing restrictions on some forms of residential and group care.
Sending Love with the Red Scarf Project
This Valentine’s Day, 2,500 college students, who were once in the foster care system, will receive a handmade red scarf from a care package sent by Foster Care to Success. Foster Care to Success, based outside Washington, D.C., is a national nonprofit organization working solely with college-bound foster youths. “Every year, we are awed by the works of art that are so generously created for our students,” Executive Director Eileen McCaffrey said in a news release. “The handmade red scarves in each of our Valentine’s Day care packages become treasured keepsakes that our students wear for years.”
Understanding the Effects of Maltreatment on Brain Development
In recent years, there has been a surge of research into early brain development. Neuroimaging technologies, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), provide increased insight about how the brain develops and how early experiences affect that development. One area that has been receiving increasing research attention involves the effects of abuse and neglect on the developing brain, especially during infancy and early childhood.
Why We Should Care About Adoption Rehoming
Rehoming can be an appropriate change of placement for a child if it is done with court approval and with home study that look at the needs of the child and the child’s best interests,” said Stephen Pennypacker, a senior child welfare expert and current President of the Partnership for Strong Families, in an interview. However, the problem with private rehoming is that it is not done with that oversight and the necessary background screening on the prospective placement. “This can lead to some pretty horrific consequences for children that are moved under those circumstances,” Pennypacker said
Testifying in Court about Trauma: The Court Hearing
Testifying in court can be a difficult and stressful experience for clinicians. But judges and lawyers are not experts in child development or the impact of trauma on children. The knowledge clinicians bring to bear is essential if the legal system is to have any hope of making sound decisions that will serve children’s interests. By educating the court through testifying, clinicians provide an invaluable service to the legal system and, most importantly, to children.