Foster Care to Adoption

Of the 428,000 children in foster care in the U.S., over 30% cannot be returned to their families and are waiting to be adopted. 135,000 children are adopted each year and there are currently 1.5 million adopted children in the United States. 59% are from the child welfare (or foster) system. Children enter foster care through no fault of their own because they have been abused, neglected or abandoned. These children are in the temporary custody of the state while their birth parents are given the opportunity to complete services that will allow the children to be returned to them if it is in the children’s best interest. Unfortunately, 30% of them never make it.

“An 18-year-old sleeps in a doorway of a public building with nothing but a tattered blanket to shield him from the cold wind. He took little more than the clothes on his back when his foster parents demanded that he leave home. He hasn’t been in touch with his biological parents in years. None of his friends’ parents will allow him to spend a night on their sofa. And he’s unfamiliar with the nearest homeless shelter.” (Social Work Today, Vol. 19, P.24, Nadine Hasenecz, MSW, LSW)

“Shelter in place. Stay at home. Self-isolation. Quarantine. Important measures for slowing and overcoming the spread of COVID-19. But for survivors living with violence, abuse, and assault, these terms mean something else: trapped.” (NPQ, May 8, 2020, Drew Adams)

As 2019 is now behind us and we look forward to 2020 - we here at Global Vision Technologies would like to express our thanks to all of the caseworkers, foster care parents, healthcare providers and so many others who have taken responsibility for our country’s most vulnerable resource - children and families.

About a year ago, President Trump signed the Family First Prevention Service Act into law. Social workers engaged in child and family care praised the legislation as the first “prevention” measure to help keep children safely with their families and avoid the traumatic experience of entering foster care. The act emphasized the importance of children growing up in families and helps ensure children are placed in the least restrictive, most family-like setting appropriate to their special needs when foster care is needed.

“I was brought up in a household where Christmas meant fun, laughter, presents and lots of food. Christmas was my favorite time of the year,” a social worker, who prefers to remain anonymous, began her Christmas story. “I guess that’s why, when I began my career in social work, it startled me to realize that for most of the children in my care Christmas was a very difficult time.” 

Wanted to share an inspirational story of foster care that turned into an adoption in Arkansas.  Meet Chase and the Bailey family and watch this short video.  https://vimeo.com/202694305 

This blog received an email in the past week from a social worker in Des Moines. We have reproduced it here in its original form.

Do You Allow Your Children to Fail?

These days our children’s lives read like a Hollywood movie. People are trying to script their children’s lives.  In some cases - they are not allowed to fail. It starts young, if they are sports minded, they have to grow up to be the next Tiger Woods. If they are smart, they are pushed to be a rocket scientist or similar.  

As a software vendor in the Health and Human Services arena it’s inspiring to be partnered with agencies that work tirelessly to help others.