Greetings Permanency Champions,
Permanency Tip of the Week: Family Fading In and Out
We always want children to remain with and / or return to healthy family whenever possible. The commitment to this type of Permanency can become complicated when the parent(s) level of engagement with the Youth is more like a roller coaster ride versus a relatively smooth ride. As the caregivers, professionals and supporters for our Youth, it is important that we serve as a support, advocate and sounding board when our Youth struggles with her experience of her parents fading in and out. Even though we maintain a consistent level of commitment with her, it is crucial that we do not compare our actions with those of her parents. We can however use this as a teachable moment to help her learn how important consistency and commitment is for the development and sustainability of health relationships. It is also important that we share all this information with the assigned social worker so that they can address this with the parent(s).
Permanency Success Story of the Week: Mickey Mouse Helps Tell Kids Their Official Adoption Date
Fox 13 – Orlando, FL. – The most magical place on earth became even more magical for two foster children who learned during a meeting with Mickey Mouse when they would have a forever family. Courtney and Tom Gilmour became foster parents to Janielle, 12, and Elijah, 10, three years ago, and planned a trip with the kids to the Star Wars Convention in Orlando and the Magic Kingdom, where the couple wanted to surprise the children with an adoption reveal…Adoption day went perfectly, Gilmour said. “Very emotional, but perfect. We had lots of friends and family there and was just joyous,” she said. Gilmour says to families who want to adopt or foster: “Focus on the positive of the process. It’s super hard at times, but it is super rewarding,” she said.
Permanency Related Articles:
Fostering Federal Change – 2017 Congressional Foster Youth Shadow Program
National Foster Youth Institute – Because of the advocacy of the Shadow Program participants in Washington D.C, Congress introduced and passed 5 pieces of federal legislation which will improve the foster care system for current and former foster youth. 1) HR 2847 Improving Services for Older Youth In Foster Care Act; 2) HR 2742 Modernizing the Interstate Placement of Children in Foster Care Act; 3) HR 2834 Partnership Grants to Strengthen Families Affected by Parental Substance Abuse Act; 4) HR 2866 Reducing Barriers for Relative Foster Parents Act; 5) HR 2857 Supporting Families in Substance Abuse Treatment Act.
Child Welfare Ideas from the Experts #1: Reducing Frequency of Foster Care Placements
The Chronicle of Social Change is highlighting each of the policy recommendations made this summer by the participants of the Foster Youth Internship Program (FYI), a group of 12 former foster youths who have completed congressional internships.
The program is overseen each summer by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. Each of the FYI participants crafted a policy recommendation during their time in Washington, D.C. Today we highlight the recommendation of Alexis Arambul, a senior at Washington State University. Arambul makes three proposals aimed at increasing the likelihood that a youth’s first foster care placement is his or her last placement:
- Development of a “child-focused recruitment model” for foster care placement that would “focus on identifying quality caregivers interested in providing for the emotional, physical, and psychological needs of the youth.” Ultimately, states should be required to use this model.
- Clarification of the safety standards that cannot be waived for relatives under the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act.
- Collection of quantitative data from states that are currently using technological services to match children…
Foster-Care Veteran Seeks to Use Tech to Ease Transition to Adult Life
The Chronicle of Philanthropy – After growing up in foster homes, Sixto Cancel started a nonprofit that is developing an app to help young people with similar histories navigate life after 18. Sixto Cancel is an enthusiastic guy. Get him talking about the potential of data and technology to help young people in the foster-care system and his passion ratchets up another notch. His voice brims with feeling; his already rapid delivery hits staccato pace.
But Mr. Cancel, 25, doesn’t just talk about the power of technology. He’s the founder and chief executive officer of Think of Us, a nonprofit in Richmond, Va., that is building a mobile app to coach young people in navigating challenges like housing, employment, finances, and health care as they age out of the foster system. The goal is to help young people leaving foster care beat a grim set of statistics. Only 58 percent will graduate from high school by age 19. More than 20 percent will become homeless after age 18. At the age of 24, only half are employed.
“One of the things that we say as a country is that you can become anything that you want,” Mr. Cancel says. “That’s not completely true right now. Different people are given different places to start in life.” His work is gaining high-powered support. Think of Us’s board includes business executives and officials from both the Obama administration and Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. It has won grants from Google.org, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, and the Pritzker Foster Care Initiative. In 2016, Think of Us was part of Fast Forward’s Accelerator program for technology nonprofits…
Ten of Ten for Kids: What are we Learning?
Alia Innovations – It’s been six weeks since we convened in Minneapolis for the challenge of re-designing a child welfare system where every child can thrive. Ten groups of 10 designers, 44 volunteers, 8 Alia staff, 10 experienced facilitators, 38 funders, and 4 IDEO expert designers spent 3 1/2 days generating 1000s of ideas which distilled into 30 initial prototypes and a draft of 6 guiding principles for moving forward in a unified way to make radical change in the field of child welfare. Whoa.
There was courage and vulnerability, hopefulness and optimism, and a bunch of tough, messy parts, too. We came out the other side just as we hoped we would after this intense heart-opening work: even more brave, open, and committed to keep going (Video)…
Untreated Traumatic Brain Injury Keeps Youth in Juvenile Justice System
Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (JJIE) – Traumatic brain injury (TBI) within youth, defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as an injury to the head that causes disruption of the normal function of the brain, is fast becoming an issue of concern for parents across the United States. High-profile incidents of TBI reported in professional athletes have sparked conversations on the safety of youth participation in a variety of sporting activities including hockey, boxing, soccer and full-contact football.
TBI that occurs during sporting events is only the tip of the iceberg. TBI also occurs frequently because of falls, motor vehicle accidents, fights and physical abuse perpetrated by adults…Furthermore, TBI has also been shown to increase criminal behavior by youth and lead to their later involvement with law enforcement. A systematic review of research found that TBI is approximately three times more likely to occur within youth in the juvenile justice system relative to their nondelinquent peers. Therefore, we make an urgent call to action to all practitioners across the juvenile justice system to focus on TBI with evidence-driven assessment tools and interventions…
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Take care and keep up the Permanency work – Our children, youth, young adults, families and communities are depending on it!