ACET, Inc. Blog

Last week, we highlighted National Lung Cancer Awareness Month, but November is also National Adoption Month! The particular focus of National Adoption Month this year is the adoption of children and youth currently in foster care.

Last year, there were an estimated 115,500 children and youth waiting to be adopted in the United States alone. Although the number of children waiting to be adopted has been declining since 2006, there are still hundreds of thousands of youth waiting to become part of a caring home. While each child is unique, children who wait the longest to be adopted share a few common characteristics: older children, groups of siblings, children of color, and children with disabilities.

There are many avenues to beginning the process of adopting a child. You can adopt a child through a public agency, also known as foster care. You can also adopt children through private agencies and from other states or countries. For those who are unable to adopt for a variety of reasons but still want to support adoption activities, plenty of agencies need help in supporting foster care and homeless children. By mentoring a child, you could be making a crucial difference in his or her life.

For more information on adoption, check out the Child Welfare Information Gateway website:  http://www.childwelfare.gov/adoption/

For more information on National Adoption Month in particular, see here: http://www.childwelfare.gov/adoption/nam/

Cassie

National Foster Care Month is a time to acknowledge the 463,000 American children and youth in foster care and the family members, foster parents, volunteers, mentors, child welfare professionals, and policymakers who help them find permanent homes and connections. This year, the Children’s Bureau and Child Welfare Information Gateway are supporting National Foster Care Month through a special website for child welfare professionals with the theme, “Partnering with Families and Youth to Achieve Permanency.”  The website features information and resources that help caseworkers, administrators, managers, and policymakers improve permanency services and outcomes for children, youth, and families involved with the child welfare system. You can access the website here: http://www.childwelfare.gov/fostercaremonth/

The National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections has also prepared fact sheets about foster care. For each state, the following information is available:

• Number of children in foster care;
• Average age and number of children in care by age range;
• Gender;
• Race/ethnicity of children in out-of-home care and of the general population in the state;
• Average length of stay in care;
• Percentage of children reunified with parents or primary caretakers;
• Number of licensed foster homes;
• Percent of youth living with relatives;
• Percent of children adopted by foster parents and by relatives; and
• Contact information to find out how to become a foster parent in that state.

Information on foster care in Minnesota can be found at: http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/socwork/nrcfcpp/info_services/state/Minnesota.pdf

Heather

The National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections (NRCPFC) offers a webcast every week which may be a valuable resource for anyone working, involved, or interested in child welfare. You need only a computer with audio (or a computer and telephone) to participate.

Each webcast is free to the public, but registration for each event is mandatory. There are also materials to view which are available for download on the event web page.

Below is information for the next webcast:

Wednesday, April 7, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EDT: Visit Coaching: Building on Family Strengths to Meet Children’s Needs

“Visits between children in foster care and their families often do not build on family strengths or help them to demonstrate that they can meet their children’s safety and developmental needs. Visits can alienate parents, children, and foster parents, and the parent’s grief, anger, and preoccupation with complying with court-ordered treatment often obscures their children’s needs. Visit coaching is an innovative approach that can replace parenting classes and office-based visits with hands-on guidance for families in meeting their children’s needs. Visit coaches, who may be caseworkers or a variety of other trained individuals, help parents take charge of visits and demonstrate more responsiveness to each child. Join the National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections (NRCPFC) Executive Director, Gerald P. Mallon, and NRCPFC Consultant, Marty Beyer for this webcast. They will discuss how the innovative approach of Visit Coaching can build on family strengths to meet children’s needs.”

To register for the webcast, visit: http://event.netbriefings.com/event/nrcfcpp/Live/nrcpfc20/.

If interested in learning more about NRCPFC, you can subscribe to their weekly newsletter at http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/socwork/nrcfcpp/update-subscription.html or check out their website at http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/socwork/nrcfcpp/.

Cassie