June, 2011

Meet Our New Family Finding Director!

Welcome Ellen Pavlosek, new Family Finding Local Director. Ellen leads volunteers in our Family Finding program. She worked nearly a dozen years in sales and marketing and is looking forward to sharing her experience with research and establishing connections in her new role as Director. She has been an advocate for children in her role as a CASA volunteer as well as with her previous experience as a mentor.

Please contact Ellen if you are interested in becoming a Family Finding volunteer at ellen@afamilyforeverychild.org or 541-343-2856.

Family Finding Volunteers Needed

Imagine being a teenager in foster care and moving from placement to placement, without family to rely on or connect with. Imagine "aging out" of the system without having made any lasting connections to help with the transition to a young adult.

Our Family Finding volunteers can make a critical difference in a child's life. A Family Finding volunteer conducts research in order to identify and connect with positive family members for a child.

Following family engagement, the lives of young people in foster care will be stabilized by establishing permanent family resources.

How Do I Volunteer?

- Family Finding volunteers need to be able to make a commitment to follow through on a case to completion; about sixty days.

- Call or email AFFEC / Family Finding to volunteer.

- Complete AFFEC application, background check and orientation.

- Participate in volunteer position training.

- Receive a case assignment.

Next Family Finding Training

The next training for Family Finding Volunteers is Saturday, June 18^th, from 9 AM to 12 PM. Please contact us prior to this date if you would like to attend this training.

A brainstorming session to connect with other volunteers and share/learn new ideas will be held June 14^th from 10 AM to 11:30 AM at the AFFEC office. Coffee and sweets will be served; please feel free to bring your own as well. Please contact Ellen at ellen@afamilyforeverychild.org

if you would like to attend.

Please visit our new website at www.afamilyforeverychild.org

for more information about our programs and about volunteering. If you click on the volunteer heading on the left navigation bar, you will find more information and an application.

AFFEC on Twitter

Twitter is fast becoming the gold standard for recruitment. Follow us and become engaged in our process as we post about new children available for adoption, interact with our volunteers, and celebrate adoption success stories.

To get the most up-to-date information, you will definitely want to follow us. Keep yourself in the loop! Your perfect child is waiting!

Our Twitter name is @AFFEC

Donate to AFFEC

Would you like to contribute to AFFEC's cause for helping children? Any amount can have a lasting impact on a child. Click below!

Questions?

Feel free to call at 541-343-2856 or email: info@afamilyforeverychild.org

Extreme Recruitment Meets Family Finding

The TV show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" challenges a team to build a house in just a week. Last year, a foster care worker in St. Louis, Missouri thought, "Why can't we bring that attitude to finding permanent homes for kids?"

An innovative approach to foster care called: Extreme Recruitment began. Over the past year, St. Louis has found permanent homes for 70 percent of kids whose cases are brought to Extreme Recruitment. Now, the approach is being tried here in Maine.

Casey Family Services in Portland has hired a private investigator to find family members who could become adoptive homes for 25 kids currently in Maine's foster care system. And each child has a team of people who meet weekly, dedicated to finding that child a permanent home. The kids who are chosen are ones with backgrounds that have made them hard to place in the past, and who are in danger of aging out of the foster care system. The goal is to find an adoptive home for the child in 12-20 weeks.

A study through the University of Chicago found that foster kids who become adults without a permanent home face an increased risk for things like homelessness and drug abuse. Extreme Recruitment focuses on older teens because they are closest to aging out of the foster care system, and therefore are the most at risk.

Mark Millar, the director of Casey Family Services in Portland, said, "It's kind of a no-brainer that we don't want any child leaving foster care without a life-long family connection."

Retired Portland police detective Gary Thorpe is the investigator Casey has hired. He uses computer software to research the teenager's family tree. Then he calls family members, looking to see if anyone is interested in making a connection with the child. Most of the time, Thorpe says, someone steps forward. He recalls one phone call he had with a child's grandmother. "She says, 'I've been waiting for this call for years,'" Thorpe said. "'I've been wondering what's been happening to this girl. I want to see her.'"

There have been some cases, though, when it's been a little harder. Thorpe said, "I'm bordering on harassment, calling them all the time, wanting them to get involved. And if they don't want to get involved, there's nothing I can do."

 Thorpe passes on the information of any potential connections to other members of a child's Extreme Recruitment team, and they do follow-up interviews to make sure those family members are appropriate people to have in the teen's life. The foster child eventually becomes involved, too, meeting with those family members.

It's possible that multiple family members will want to adopt one of these teenagers, and Millar says that is a good problem to have. He says it's always good for a young person to have multiple family members in their life, even if that person isn't in the adoptive home.

Extreme Recruitment is being paid for in Maine through a one-year grant from the Anne E. Casey Foundation. If the method is proven to be successful, more funding could be made available.

Is It Hard To Find Adoptive Homes For Teens?

Question: I see many older children on the NC Kids website. Is it hard to find adoptive homes for teenagers?

Answer: Finding adoptive homes for older kids can be a challenge. Often times, a worker or adoption committee might look for families with approved adoption home studies that are interested in adopting teens in general, but do not know the specific children involved. Many adoption specialists are now taking a closer look at people who already have a relationship with the teen and may be open to adopting that specific child.

Family Finding

There are numerous places to explore when looking for someone who can make a lifelong commitment to a teenager. In North Carolina, several counties (Buncombe, Catawba, Gaston, Mecklenburg, New Hanover, and Wake) are involved with a pilot program called Family Finding. Family Finding consultants work diligently to identify and locate 30 or more extended family members for a specific child. The consultants evaluate each person's ability and willingness to support waiting children either through placement or in other ways. Child welfare agencies across the nation are having success achieving permanency through similar programs.

Even in counties without Family Finding consultants, it is worth the effort to reconsider maternal and paternal family members who may have previously been ruled out. Family members who were unable to care for a child at an earlier age may have had a change in their situation that would now allow them to be an appropriate parent to a teenager. The teenager may also be at a different developmental stage that might allow them to be a better match for a particular relative.

Exploring the Possibilities

Foster parents make up a large percentage of adoptive families nationwide, and North Carolina is no exception. Each year, hundreds of foster parents adopt waiting children. While adoption isn't for everyone, current and former foster parents should always be considered for permanency.

Adoption workers can explore school personnel with whom the child is particularly close to. This could include teachers and support staff such as teaching assistants, cafeteria staff, bus drivers, counselors or academic tutors. As some foster children move frequently, this search should include not only current school staff, but education professionals from previous schools or day care facilities the teen might use during school breaks.

Other resources to consider are people who know the young person from providing support services. While it is unlikely that a teenager's current therapist or service providers will be able to provide a permanent home, adoption professionals can consider former therapists, residential treatment workers, mentors, and volunteers who have worked with the teen and still have a supportive relationship with them. Church members are another option for some teens.

In the age of Facebook, texting, and instant messaging, it seems young people are constantly in touch with someone. One worker recently shared that she scrolls through her teenage clients' cell phones and talks with them about their friends, their friend's parents, and other adults with whom the kids have a close relationship and might be willing to consider providing permanency.

According to Facebook statistics, the average user has 130 "friends" (and most teens probably have more), so it's another list of possible placements worth exploring. Even "AWOL resources"-the people teenagers run to when times get hard-should be explored. If it is a safe, appropriate environment and one that can be committed to a teenager over the long term, this may be an untapped resource for a waiting teen.

What You Can Do

As part of the team of professionals involved in a child's life, how can foster parents help find permanency for the teens in their life? Because foster parents spend far more time with waiting children than other professionals, you have a unique insight into who teens spend their time with and what type of support or influence different people provide. Foster parents are encouraged to suggest to workers any possible permanent placement options they see, and allow workers time to investigate these connections. Keep in mind that workers may have additional information about a particular person or something that happened in the past that would eliminate them as a possibility.

We know that the outcomes for teens aging out of foster care are not encouraging. Many of the children aging out of foster care don't complete high school and struggle with homelessness, unemployment, arrest/legal troubles, and unplanned pregnancy. To avoid these outcomes, foster parents, social workers, and those involved with waiting children must continue to help identify caring adults who can commit to these young people.

Response by Robyn Weiser, NC Kids Adoption and Foster Care Network 

AFFEC is the proud recipient of Bi-Mart's Willamette Country Music Festival's generosity. They are making available to us 100 tickets for our Mentor/Mentee matches for a weekend of fun. Please submit your interest to christy@afamilyforeverychild.org  

if you are a current Heart Gallery Mentor and would like to take your Mentee to this fabulous weekend event.

The Bi-Mart Willamette Country Music Festival is an exciting 3-day outdoor country music and camping event located near the historic community of Brownsville, Oregon. The 2011 dates are August 19, 20 and 21. This fantastic event is the Pacific Northwest's fastest growing concert and camping experience featuring more than a dozen of country music's biggest stars!

Besides star studded music, the Bi-Mart Willamette Country Music Festival also offers RV and tent camping just steps from the grand stage. We are also excited to welcome Radio Disney, for the best in kids' entertainment and family fun! Make your summer concert and camping plans now. We look forward to seeing you in August! Thank You to Bi-Mart!