 |
|
|||||
|
Something for everyone in foster care Editor’s note: This is part 2 in a three-part series on foster care in Chesterfield. To read part 1, visit www.chesterfieldobserver.com and search the archives for “foster care.” Click on the link for “Children find temporary homes.”
Children’s Home Society of Virginia (CHSV) works with local social service agencies, including the Chesterfield-Colonial Heights Department of Social Services, to get children out of foster care and find a permanent solution. “[The children we help] are often tougher to place,” said Nadine Marsh Carter, president of the nonprofit organization. “We’ve sort of carved out a niche for children who are in foster care and will be placed for adoption.” Danielle and Tony Cline are Chesterfield foster parents who have mainly provided respite care, which gives full-time foster families a temporary break from caring for the children in their care. They had one other foster child before 15-year-old Heather came to live with them about eight months ago. The Clines, who have a 16-year-old daughter, Victoria, hadn’t planned on adopting and didn’t welcome Heather into their home with the idea that they might. “She’s a very special young lady,” Danielle said. “We all just clicked. She had been in pre-adoption situations before that hadn’t worked out, so we went slowly. We told her when she’d been here about six weeks that if she decided she wanted us to adopt her, she should tell us.” When she’d been with the Clines for about five months, Heather, who has been in foster care since she was 9 years old, asked the family to adopt her. The process should be finalized sometime in December. “I’m going to put a big, pretty bow on her head,” Danielle said. “She’ll be my Christmas present.” Carter understands how the Clines feel. She came to CHSV as a client at first. “I was practicing law, living life.” The children she and her husband adopted as infants are now 9 and 11 years old. “I know as an adoptive parent that the gift of family is a beautiful, lifelong thing,” she said. “I don’t take family for granted.” After serving on the organization’s board of directors, she took on her current position. “Every child needs a home and family,” Carter said. “It keeps me motivated every day.” During FY10, which ended June 30, the agency placed 57 children in permanent adoptive homes and saw that 1,736 days of temporary foster care were provided to children throughout the state. The agency also offers pregnancy counseling and search-and-reunion services to help adoptees learn about their birth parents if they wish. Nonprofit organizations such as Intercept and the Bair Foundation also work with social services departments to provide foster care, often for hard-to-place children who need therapeutic foster care. “Many kids coming to us have behavioral or emotional issues,” said Lisa Duez, state director at the Bair Foundation. “We have foster parents and staff who are trained to help these kids become the best they can be.” The training involves helping parents understand behavioral disorders and how to work with kids who have them. Therapeutic foster parents are also taught skills to cope with stress management and how having a foster child will affect the household. The Bair Foundation offers intensive in-home services to families in crisis designed to help kids stay in their homes when they are at risk of being removed or to help them transition back into their homes after foster care. Intercept offers treatment foster care for “youths that haven’t been successful in [other] foster care situations or who need a higher level of treatment,” said Lisa Reid, director of Treatment Foster Care Services. “They’ve usually been badly abused or neglected. Many need outpatient therapy and some have criminal issues. The care we provide can be temporary until they go back home, or they may be looking for adoption. We have programs to help kids according to their needs. “We have some kids who’ve come from Chesterfield, but we don’t get many because Chesterfield [social services] has done such a good job of finding permanent homes for children,” said Reid. In fact, the number of foster children needing care in Chesterfield has dropped from 158 in 2008 to 112 in 2009 to 80 currently in the system. Therapeutic or treatment foster care requires a high level of contact between agency social workers and foster families. Agency staff members contact the families and foster children every week and visit homes several times each month. “Some people are nervous about this population,” Reid said. “We give [treatment foster parents] a lot of support and training. It can be a difficult population. We’re filling a void, offering a service that not all localities can provide.” At the Bair Foundation, 80 percent of the therapeutic foster children they serve move to some permanent living situation, Duez said. But some get stuck in foster care residual treatment, which means they live in group homes with several other children and 24- hour staffing or they are placed into a locked facility for treatment. While Chesterfield County must pay if they need the more specialized services of these organizations, a percentage of the funds received through the Virginia Comprehensive Services Act is used for this purpose. Medicaid takes care of medical needs, including mental health therapy. “At 18 years old, kids can stay in foster care or sign themselves out,” Duez said. “For those who stay in the system, some services are available, such as assistance with behavioral treatment.” Javon, an 18-year-old foster child who is a senior at Thomas Dale High School, arrived at the home of Matt and Diana Botset last June so they could provide him with respite care. He’d been having a hard time at his previous foster home, and together the Botset family and Javon decided he should stay. While not in therapeutic care, Javon admits his past was troubled. “I hit rock bottom. I was in a shelter for a while, but that wasn’t good, and I was in another foster home, but it’s better at the Botsets,” he said. “They’ve been through it all.” They are helping Javon to become an adult by teaching him to take care of himself. They counsel him about taking responsibility and teach him life skills, he said. “These are valuable lessons. No one ever encouraged me to learn those things before.” But some foster care children need more help as they age out of the system. Independent-living programs are a much-needed piece of the foster care puzzle. “Virginia is one of the worst states for allowing children to just stay in foster care and not be adopted,” said Carter. “The state has made inroads, but we have a need for more adoptive families. Once they age out, one out of four [foster children] ends up in jail within a year, one in five ends up homeless within two years and one in six never graduates high school.” Both Intercept and the Bair Foundation have independent living support services to help foster children learn life skills beginning at age 14, or find an apartment or college to attend once they’re legally adults. The LifeBridge program at Intercept continues support to those who have aged out of foster care until age 21. For those with mental-health issues, there is no age limit for support. The Bair Foundation also supports those who age out of foster care. United Methodist Family Services (UMFS), which provides foster care, therapeutic or treatment foster care and adoption services, has developed a new program in partnership with the Virginia Department of Social Services called Project LIFE – Living In and Focusing on Empowerment. The program involves regional independent-living consultants and youth advisory councils, comprised of youths ages 14-21. “The idea behind Project LIFE is to help foster care youths find lifelong connections with foster care parents, or with a mentor, teacher or another adult in the community,” said Jacquelyn Cowan, program director. Through workshops, youths learn independent-living skills. Those on the youth advisory councils advocate for themselves in their communities. “We want to empower them to have a positive voice in their communities, to be able to impact policy that affects them and other youths in foster care,” Cowan said. “And they develop leadership skills.” Interested in fostering? There is always a need for more foster parents, whether for regular foster care, therapeutic fostering or respite care. Those who would like more information about becoming foster parents or families should contact: |
      |
||||
