Permanency Tip of the Week: One area that can be particularly challenging for our Transitional Age Youth with foster care backgrounds is in the formation and sustaining of healthy interpersonal relationships. This is especially true for our Youth that have experienced limited Permanency. For these Youth, we need to be especially intentional about facilitating clear and ongoing conversations with them about how they can create, evaluate, sustain and when necessary end interpersonal relationships.
Permanency Story of the Week:It started with a phone call – CASA LA News – May 2014 – CASA Elizabeth Moore was assigned to 17-year-old Natasha to help her find transitional housing. Together they found much more. What a powerful story of an Adult Adoption that started with a phone call from a CASA.
Current Permanency related articles:
“Improving Outcomes for Foster Youth in California,”The goal of last summer’s conference was to identify and discuss recommendations to improve the child welfare system in California, reach consensus among stakeholders and implement key recommendations.
Following the conference, a small work group of key leaders was convened. Click here to see who participated. There was general consensus on the following priorities: 1) Immediate reduction in social worker caseloads. 2) Early intervention and support for at risk families. Both recommendations will require an increase in state and perhaps federal funding. There was also agreement that all aspects of the foster care system, including the training and selection of social workers and the delivery of services through early intervention and support, should be culturally sensitive and appropriate.
U.S Congress – Bil would expand child protection training nationwide
U.S. Rep. Tim Walz and others have introduced legislation they hope will expand the good work that Winona’s acclaimed National Child Protection and Training Center provides locally and across the country. The National Child Protection Training Act, a bill with bipartisan support that would develop training programs for child protection professionals and establish at least four regional training centers. The centers would develop graduate and undergraduate curriculum and laboratory training facilities for child protection professionals.
House Bill Would Open Eligibility, Restrict Use of Federal Foster Care Dollars
Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.) introduced a bill late last week that would implement a number of the major foster care financing reforms proposed by two influential foundations last year. Chief among them: making all foster youth eligible for federal funding under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act, but limiting federal funds to three years of foster care for each youth. “Too many children live in limbo in foster care, and we need to support a system that prioritizes permanent home placements,” said Langevin, in a statement about the bill. The aim of the Permanent Families for All Children Act is to push states into quicker moves to permanency – reunification, adoption or guardianship – for children.
New Mexico Expanding Digital Adoption Information
Today, Governor Susana Martinez unveiled the nation’s first permanent Digital Heart Gallery. The Digital Heart Gallery helps Children, Youth, and Families Department (CYFD) foster children available for adoption find their forever families. “In New Mexico on any given night, 300 kids are looking for their forever family,” said Governor Martinez. “This new Digital Heart Gallery does an amazing job of reflecting the personalities of these amazing children, and is another important step in helping more New Mexico children find their forever family, something every child needs and deserves.”
Dr John DeGarmo – June Blog – Trust. It can be a difficult thing to build with children in foster care. Please see the link below for my thoughts on how to build trust with a foster child in this month’s blog. As always, you are most welcome to share it with others, place it on your website, and use it in your own newsletter, if you so desire.
Bridging the Trauma Research-Practice Divide: Juvenile Court Trauma Audits – Carly Dierkhising and Shawn Marsh are the authors of this article in Traumatic Stress Points (Volume 28, Issue 2). More than ever before, juvenile courts and their affiliated stakeholders are coming to understand and appreciate the impact of trauma on the social and emotional functioning of the children and families they serve. This increasing awareness in local jurisdictions is paralleled by a growing focus on utilizing trauma-informed practices in juvenile justice system reform at the federal level (e.g., Defending Childhood Initiative). To bridge this research to practice gap, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges in collaboration with affiliates from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network launched a formative project with select courts across the United States to develop a trauma audit protocol for juvenile court settings.