Permanency Tip of the Week: Rekindling Everyone’s Belief in Permanency
As this year winds down and a new one is close to beginning, there are a lot of conversations about what people believe in and hope to happen in their life. For our Youth in foster care, now is a great time for all of us to take a moment to reflect on our beliefs about the critical need and real potential for Permanency in the life of EVERY Youth. Let us re-commit ourselves to doing everything in our individual and collective power to bring the wish of Permanency to realization as soon as possible.
Permanency Story of the Week: Our Adoption Story
After about 3 years in foster care we were able to grant the one request of our 15 year old foster daughter when we first got her a year ago. ” Please, don’t make me move again, I just want to be stable” The adoption was beautiful. Her birth family and our family have become one big family. It was wonderful to have her birth mother and siblings there showing their love and support.
Current Permanency Related Articles:
17th Annual “A Home For The Holidays” Special
Hip hop artist and NCIS: Los Angeles star LL COOL J will bring his dimpled smile when he hosts A Home For The Holidays, an entertainment special celebrating families. The 17th annual edition of the program will air Friday, Dec. 18 (9:00–10:00PM, ET/PT) on CBS.
For the first time, the show will travel across America to bring music’s biggest artists together with children from foster care—and their new families. A behind-the-scenes glimpse will walk viewers through concert venues where music idols Christina Aguilera, Jason Derulo, Rascall Flatts, and Ed Sheeran will light up the stage with their amazing performances. It’s bound to be an inspiring experience on both ends when these artists dedicate their performances to these amazing children and their new adoptive families.
Additionally, the special will share pre-taped segments to help raise awareness about the importance of adoption. Currently, there are more than 400,000 children in foster care in the United States. An inspirational “Children Waiting” segment will share an intimate portrait of their hopes, their dreams, and their wish for a “forever family.” Each year, the special inspires thousands of families to consider adopting children in foster care, some of whom have been featured on the special—and this year will be no different.
Federal Education Overhaul: What It Means for Child Welfare, Juvenile Justice
After years of trying, the Senate and House passed a rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the legislation that drives federal policy on schools. Child welfare and juvenile justice are hardly central issues of federal education reform. But the new bill, called the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), includes some new requirements for states when it comes to the relationship between schools and those two systems.
Abused Children May Get Unique Form of PTSD
Child abuse scars not just the brain and body, but, according to the latest research, but may leave its mark on genes as well. The research, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that abused children who develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may experience a biologically distinct form of the disorder from PTSD caused by other types of trauma later in life.
Trauma in Dual-Status Youth
The Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Children’s Action Corps and the RFK National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice published a brief outlining the significance of identifying and treating trauma in children and youth with both child welfare and juvenile justice system involvement—also known as dual-status youth. The brief begins by examining the prevalence of exposure to potentially traumatic events among dual-status youth, as well as the prevalence of trauma-based behavior among this population. The importance of creating “best practices” to identifying these trauma-based behavioral or psychological problems is discussed, including practices for screening and assessment methods.
Generations in Foster Care
When you grow up in foster care and become a mother, your greatest hope is that you’ll get to be your child’s Mommy. Yet mothers who grew up in foster care are at high risk of having their own children removed. This is the first issue in a series on what it takes for young mothers who grew up in foster care to build stable families. This issue looks at the painful relationship between child welfare systems and the mothers they helped raise.
Top 10 Characteristics of Successful Foster and Adoptive Families
As a supervisor for a program that licenses foster and adoptive families for children in state custody, I have had the privilege of working with many wonderful and caring families who desire to make a difference in the lives of children and youth. One part of the responsibilities that my staff and I carry is the assessment of prospective foster families. There are many tools and resources that we use to help us with this task, as well as one-on-one and group interaction with individuals.
During our assessment process, we often look for several characteristics that lean towards the success of prospective foster and/or adoptive families in their journeys. These qualities are important to consider when determining if one is ready for foster parenting, and adoption
Please feel free to forward this blog to other Permanency Champions and those that could use a healthy dose of Permanency.