Permanency Tip of the Week: Attachment Friendly Interactions
One of the most critical aspects of forming and sustaining positive interpersonal relationships is the individual’s ability to display and respond to Attachment Friendly Interactions (AFI). These include: smiling, making eye contact, welcoming body posture and two-way communication. For children with a history of abuse, neglect and trauma, these AFI may be very foreign to them because of their early childhood history. A key goal for both the children and the potential Permanent connections is to master the display of and response to Attachment Friendly Interactions.
Permanency Story of the Week: Adoption Success Story: Carson
Carson entered the child welfare system in 2007 after being removed from the care of his biological mother for child neglect. For six years, Carson transitioned to several foster care and pre-adoptive homes with the hope that one of the resources would commit to being his forever family. Together Tabor Children’s Services and the Philadelphia Department of Human Services (DHS) recognized that Carson required a family that would never give up on him even when he presented with less than ideal behaviors. Also, it was obvious Carson needed a family that understood that not all children know how to receive healthy unconditional love from a stable and committed family…To the adoption team, it was obvious that Ms. Carson presented as the best pre-adoptive resource. She provided Carson with unconditional love, advocated for educational support, sought family therapy to help Carson integrate into the family, and effectively utilized the services of Tabor’s Permanency Team… For Carson, this was a dream that came true because he was finally adopted by a family that would love him forever.
Current Permanency Related Articles:
Fixing Foster Care: The Power of Youth Voice
The secret to fixing the foster care system lies in the voices of the youth. When you put a group of foster youth in a room together to talk about the system, you get a very dynamic dialogue. Young adults have some of the most brilliant solutions to problems in the foster care system. They contribute great, strong ideas they can stand by and believe in. I am one of those youth. My name is Johna Rivers. I recently took a journalism writing class with Fostering Media Connections (FMC).* Let me be the first to say that this class was so powerful, it inspired me to write my first article about my experience. Writing is my passion, and now I have been given an opportunity to do just that.
Structuring Policies and Practices to Support Educational Resilience of Foster Youth
White Paper created by Upbring in partnership with Child and Family Research Institute at UT-Austin. The paper describes how youth in foster care often have poor educational outcomes due to frequent moves and lack of caregiver stability. Drawing on resilience theory, the authors present a framework for structuring policies and practices to promote educational resilience in youth. One source of resiliency is school support, which can include strong student-teacher relationships, effective logistical support, and emotional support and social recognition provided by peers and adults.
Foster Parents Should Grieve When a Child Leaves Their Family
The comment made to me the most by those who are not foster parents is: “I could not do what you do. It would hurt too much to give the children from foster care back.” As someone who has cared for more than 50 children in my home the last 13 years, as well as traveling the country speaking about the foster care system, I hear this several times a week. My response used to be “I understand.” Of late, though, I have a new and ready response: “That’s a good thing. It is supposed to hurt. Your heart is supposed to break!”
Marriage Equality Is the Law, but Assaults on LGBT Parenting (and Much More) Continue
Even though marriage equality is now the law of the land, however – and even as we see positive developments like the recent Supreme Court decision supporting gay adoption rights – policies and practices are being promoted around our nation that impede (and sometimes prevent) members of the LGBT community from becoming parents to these waiting children. Other state efforts go even further, essentially representing a broader assault on LGBT people and their rights.
Deborah N. Silverstein and Sharon Kaplan – Adoption is a lifelong, intergenerational process which unites the triad of birth families, adoptees and adoptive families forever. Adoption, especially of adolescents, can lead to both great joy and tremendous pain. Recognizing the core issues in adoption is one intervention that can assist triad members and professionals working in adoption better to understand each other and the residual effects of the adoption experience.
Adoption triggers seven lifelong or core issues for all triad members, regardless of the circumstances of the adoption or the characteristics of the participants: Loss, Rejection, Guilt and shame, Grief, Identity, Intimacy, Mastery / Control
More Sophisticated Transition Planning Needed for Foster Youth with Complex Needs
Youth who age out of foster care face obstacles like homelessness, unemployment and poverty. Think about how much harder it is for young people with complex needs like a chronic illness or an intellectual disability. Youth with complex needs require extra support when they exit the foster care system at age 18 or 21, depending on the state, but there is too often little or no support. The Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act of 2014 requires that a case plan and transition planning for successful adulthood start at age 14 and include the youth in this plan. While this is a step in the right direction, more needs to be done for youth with complex needs in preparation for aging out of care.