Many years ago when I was in law school, I worked at the Juvenile Law Center in Portland as a student intern. It was there that I was first exposed to children and youth in the court system — not just those who had committed a criminal act, but also those who were dependents of the court and involved in the child welfare system through no fault or act of their own. From that point forward, much of my professional life was devoted to making life better for these children and youth.
The one thing I came to know and appreciate about this group, known as dependents, was that many ended up in foster care facing additional challenges. They were often disconnected from family, spending months and years in “out of home” placements. Though safety and permanency are the primary goals of our child welfare system, permanency is often elusive to this particular group. My work led me to understand that it is not only our job as a community to protect our children, but also to help provide a safe and nurturing environment for them. Without a real place to call home, many of these children end up homeless, in prison, or suffering mental and emotional problems in disproportionate numbers once they exit the system.
About a year ago, I became involved in an effort here in Deschutes County known as the Family Preservation and Support Initiative. This initiative includes the Deschutes County Commission on Children and Families, Court Appointed Special Advocates, Department of Human Services Child Welfare and Mountain Star Relief Nursery. These organizations, with the support of the Casey Family Programs, are part of the local Raise Me Up campaign.
To date, these efforts have included establishing a “family finding” process aimed at identifying and locating family connections for children and youth placed in foster care. The hope is to find family to ultimately serve as the alternate placement for these children rather than regular foster care, or at least provide the connection to family that is vital to them.
CASA and DHS have committed resources to developing and implementing this effort to tremendous success thus far. Over the past two years, 729 family members have been identified for children in this program. It has been shown that placing a child with family members when possible, known as “relative care,” is generally more cost effective and better for a child's emotional health and stability.
Another effort currently in process is development of a pilot Foster Parent Mentor Program. This program will provide support for biological parents with the goal of safely reducing the number of children entering care and increasing the number leaving care.
We have many exceptional foster parents wanting to do more than just warehouse the children and youth coming into their care. The trusted logic has been that to protect children from abusive and neglectful parents, it was necessary to literally disconnect them from their families. This included discouraging contact between biological parents and foster parents. This view has changed, and this program, when implemented, will be a giant leap forward in changing the dynamics of foster care. In fact, DHS is currently recruiting for foster families for this program.
April is Child Abuse Awareness Month. The Raise Me Up campaign is designed to bring attention to those abused and neglected children who find themselves in foster care who can only dream of a safe and permanent home, and to remind us of our responsibility as a community to help raise all of our children.
Please remember to wear a blue ribbon in recognition of abused and neglected children and the need to fight that epidemic. Then go to www .raisemeup.oregon.gov to see how you can help. Go to “Volunteering” on the Home page, click on “Learn More,” then “County Opportunities” and finally “Deschutes County.”
by Judy Stiegler
-Judy lives in Bend.
http://www.bendbulletin.com/
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