Greetings Permanency Champions,
Permanency Tip of the Week: Making Sure the Whole Picture is Painted with Proper Context
Doing our “due diligence” is important whenever a major decision needs to be made. This can include: 1) Looking at the decision from multiple perspectives; 2) Gaining insight and feedback from people whom we trust; 3) Ensuring that we have access to all relevant information. We must facilitate this same process for those individuals / families who are partnering with us to provide lifelong Permanency to the Youth that we serve. Some of the information we share (trauma histories, mental health issues, behavioral challenges, etc.) have the potential to scare away people. It is in these situations it is critical that we provide this information with the proper context in terms of: 1) Factors that led to these issues; 2) Past, present and future intervention options; 3) Sources of current and future support.
Permanency Success Story of the Week: Yankees’ Rookie & MLB All-Star Aaron Judge is Adopted
Adoptive Parents – The new face of baseball. Record-setting rookie. Home Run Derby king. These are just some of the many titles MLB fans and players have given the Yankees’ new All-Star player, Aaron Judge. At just 25-years-old, Aaron Judge has already become a household name in the sports arena. If you follow major league baseball, you have undoubtedly heard of Aaron Judge before…
Talent and strength may be a driving force behind Judge’s swing, but passion, humility, respect, and a team-first attitude are at the heart of this player’s performance. That is why so many people love him…You may have heard of Aaron Judge before, but did you know that he was also adopted? Patty and Wayne Judge adopted Aaron as a newborn, on the second day of his life in April 1992. Judge’s parents call that day a miracle, and this baseball star agrees. He told The Post, “I feel they kind of picked me… that God was the one that matched us together.”
Aaron Judge has a closed adoption, meaning he does not (and never has) had any contact with his biological parents. He claims that he has never wanted to, either…Aaron Judge put it perfectly when he told Newsday, “Some kids grow in their mom’s stomach; I grew in my mom’s heart… She’s always showed me love and compassion ever since I was a little baby.” For this reason, he explains, “I’ve never needed to think differently or wonder about anything.”
Permanency Related Articles:
Making A Lifetime Commitment To Your Adopted Child
Adoption.com – During my years working as a frontline case manager for children in state custody, I was appalled at the numbers of kids on my caseload, and fellow staff members’ caseloads, who had been adopted years prior and then were placed back into the system by their adoptive family…
Here are some things to consider regarding making a lifetime commitment to a child: 1) Once the “newness” of the adoption wears off, and you find yourself without the support of agency staff, how will you handle crisis moments? 2) What are your limits in terms of behavioral, emotional, and other mental health issues? 3) How would you feel if your child (age 18) decides to seek out biological family and then considers moving to where his or her biological family resides? 4) Assess what parenting through a lifetime looks like to you. Will you be there when your child is an adult and struggling with past trauma? Are you willing to pick up the pieces once again and advocate just as hard as you did when the child was younger?
Housing Challenges for Youth Aging Out of Foster Care
WAMU – For foster children, the arrival of their 18th and 21st birthdays can be scary. That’s when they age out of the state systems that have supported them. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, every year, approximately 25,000 youth fall into that category nationally.
Twelve Child Welfare Policy Ideas from Former Foster Youth
Chronicle of Social Change – Every year, one of Youth Services Insider’s favorite assignments is poring over the policy recommendations of the 12-young people selected for the Foster Youth Internship Program (FYI), a program operated by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. Each participant interns for a member of Congress and produces one proposal on how to improve child welfare policy. This year’s collection, “Unlocking Potential,” did not disappoint.
New Resource Guide for Child Sexual Abuse/Exploitation Prevention
Georgia Center for Child Advocacy – New resource guide provides background on best practice, principles of prevention, identifying resources for the classroom, developing a prevention plan, age appropriate teaching suggestions, analysis of specific programs, and guidelines for implementation and evaluation. It is really quite thorough and is full of excellent ideas and suggestions. The guide also provides an analysis of multiple prevention programs that currently exist, including 7 determined to be “best practice” by the work group. This is an excellent resource to engage schools and other community organizations focused on child sexual abuse and exploitation prevention!
Foster Care Adoption: Come Prepared with Faith and Heavy Duty Boots
Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption – This guest blog is written by Stacie Booth, a mother of one adopted son and two biological sons, devoted wife and small business owner who provides Taekwondo classes for a homeschool group and Montessori schools.
It is written in the Bible that we must “visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” But simply adopting out of a sense of duty to help children who need parents is not enough, as Paul illustrates in I Corinthians 13, “And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” He further describes love as patient, kind, does not provoke and endures all things. He wasn’t kidding about the last one, because in parenting a traumatized child, we’ve had to endure more in one year than all the past 40 years combined…
While my husband and I have worked diligently and carefully teaching him, we cannot take credit for the growth and progress. Before this journey began, we knew that our efforts would only be the vehicle clearing the path for our son, that it would be God who could provide the healing and acceptance that he desperately needed. And that is what has made the difference. Adoption is a difficult path to travel with challenges along the way that will make you question why you are doing it, but every child deserves love, acceptance, and family. Just make sure to have some heavy duty work boots because you never know what you’ll walk through next.
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Take care and keep up the Permanency work – Our children, youth, young adults, families and communities are depending on it!