Greetings Permanency Champions,
Permanency Tip of the Week: Permanency – The Best, Toughest and Most Critical Work in Child Welfare
Celebrating Labor Day is a great reminder that the work of Permanency for our Youth in Foster Care needs to remain the focus of our work. While we all have lots of competing demands for our attention while we are at work, let’s all commit to keeping Permanency on top of our things to do list. In doing this work, it is important to remember that Permanency is among the Best aspects of our work (It’s one of the biggest reasons why we entered this field), the Toughest (Our youth, families and communities have so many challenges) and the Most Critical (Without Permanency, not much else matters). Let’s get to this work today and every day!
Permanency Success Story of the Week: Police Officer Adopts 8-year-old Boy He Saved from Severe Child Abuse
CBS News – Two years ago, Officer Jody Thompson was pulling into the parking lot at the Poteau Police Department in Oklahoma to drop off his partner when he overheard a dispatch about a case of physical child abuse. Thompson wasn’t on duty at the time, but he responded to the call and offered assistance…Thompson refused to let John out of his sight. He knew from the first moment he saw him he wanted to take care of him for the rest of his life…The next day, Thompson contacted the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS) to become a certified foster parent. A couple days later, he brought John home.
Thompson welcomed John into his home on April 30, 2015. Two days later, he found out his wife was pregnant with their third biological son. “But the story gets even more incredible,” Thompson explained. Nearly 7 months later, on November 3, 2015, DHS called to inform the Thompsons that John’s mother had given birth to a baby girl while in jail. Officials asked the Thompsons if they would be interested in fostering her…
“We went through something bad, but we’re not going got let it define who were are. We’re not going to let this hold us back,” said Thompson. “Always have compassion, you never know what you’re going to walk into.”
Permanency Related Articles:
DTFA – More than 110,000 Children Need a Family Right Now
3BL Media – In the United States, right now, there are more than 110,000 children in foster care waiting to be adopted. President & CEO of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption Rita Soronen talks about the Foundation’s strategies to get these children their forever families and the changing attitudes of Americans towards children in foster care. “For 20,000 children in this country, year over year over year, they turn 18 and leave foster care without a family,” Soronen told host Tom Hodson of WOUB during the Spectrum podcast. The Foundation focuses specifically on finding families for those children most at risk of aging out of care.
The Repair of Early Trauma: A “Bottom Up” Approach
Beacon House (UK) – Did you know that when we say a child has an attachment disorder, it is often not the whole picture? It is only one part of a seven-piece jigsaw puzzle called ‘developmental trauma’. By putting together the puzzle, we can understand how a child’s adverse childhood experiences have shaped their emotional world and outward behavior. Once we understand this, we can then work with a child to help them with their developmental trauma using an innovative therapeutic approach called the ‘Neuro-Sequential Model of Therapeutics’. This model recovers and repairs each part of a child’s brain in a specific, phased and effective order. We need to ensure that the child’s different environments work together using this model as a whole; including home school, therapy and even the GP – to ensure the child’s best chances for recovering from their trauma and loss. Developmental trauma can be repaired – if we get the order and type of support just right.
Former Foster Youth Develops Online Course to Empower Foster Children
Chronicle of Social Change – A former foster youth has created an innovative tool for professionals in the child welfare system through his online course, Fostering Resilience. Michael Place, now an international public speaker and child rights activist, recently launched Fostering Resilience to help professionals identify and foster resilient behaviors in children.
Place’s commitment to helping foster youth succeed comes from his own experiences in New York’s foster care system. After spending nine years in foster care, Place developed a passion for advocacy…Instead of focusing on the systemic issues of the foster care system, Place wants to help children who are going through the system in its current state.
From Foster Care to Valedictorian: How Mentors are Helping Kids Get to College
WCMH – NBC 4 – Columbus, OH — It’s hard enough to be a teenager going through high school but for kids in foster care it’s even more difficult. Not only are they trying to make friends while being shipped to different foster families in different school districts, they’re trying to succeed in school, not to mention the emotional trauma of no longer having their parents. Mentors with Franklin County Children Services are trying to ease that burden and help foster children reach whatever goal they have – whether it be attending college, tech school, or just graduating from high school…
Human Trafficking in Adolescents: Understanding the Issues as a Service Provider
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia – Research Institute – Child sex trafficking, also known as commercial sexual exploitation or sex trafficking of minors, remains a complex and unaddressed form of violence against children and adolescents. It’s estimated there are approximately 100,000 victims and 300,000 youth at risk in the United States. Recognizing warning signs and identifying trafficked adolescents remains a challenge, in part due to myths about trafficking, its hidden nature, and the reluctance of adolescents to disclose abuse…
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Take care and keep up the Permanency work – Our children, youth, young adults, families and communities are depending on it!