Voices for Children – CASA

“Voices for Children” trains and supports community volunteers who support and guide children in the foster care system. CASA’s (Court Appointed Special Advocates) speak up for the children’s best interests and build relationships that help restore a child’s trust. CASA‘s also mentor youth over age 18 as they transition out of foster care into independent living.

This organization aims to make sure that children placed in foster care do receive the care and services they need to be safe and happy. They also pursue to find permanent homes for the children who are leaving their homes due to maltreatment or family issues. Their help is provided by community volunteers, who are trained as Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA‘s), and they provide practical support and rights-based advocacy for foster children of all ages. “Voices for Children” follows California and local rules of the court, it complies with the standards set by the National CASA Association and has been certified as a partner agency of United Way Monterey County!

So this is how it works..

when Child Protective Services removes a child from his or her parents when the child’s safety and well being are in danger. The child’s case comes before the Juvenile Dependency Court, and then the child is moved to a safe place, such as a foster home, and services are provided. The team that manages the case includes social workers, attorneys, and caregivers. The judge can order that the child get a CASA—a Court Appointed Special Advocate—to provide an additional layer of support and guidance. In addition to getting to know the child, CASAs submit reports, make recommendations, and speak up for the child to the judge in court proceedings. In preparation, CASAs spend time with the child, review records, research information, and talk with professionals, caregivers, teachers, and therapists. CASAs develop a case plan, identifying the child’s priority issues, and participate in team meetings to monitor, support, and guide progress toward family reunification or other permanency plans.

Locally, no other agency serves in this capacity.

“Voices for Children” provides professional training and supervision for volunteers appointed by the judge to serve as Officers of the Court. CASA has the legal responsibility to advocate for the best interests and quality of life for Monterey County’s foster children.

Get involved and make a difference in at least one child’s life at http://voicesforchildrencasa.org/get_involved . I am currently in the process of becoming an advocate and I am more than excited for what I have lying ahead of me!!

Listen up folks..

Approximately 500,000 children are in the foster care system in the United States, more over the time frame a child needs to be in foster care is quite extensive. Persistent moves in and out of foster homes can be deeply unsettling for children. Most children who grow up in the foster care system suffer from psychological, social, and mental issues.

Children enter the foster care system when their parents or legal guardians are unable or unwilling to provide care. A child, who falls under the Welfare and Institutions Code Section 300 descriptions, is under authority of juvenile court, which may deem the child to be dependent on the court and turned over to Child Protective Services. A child protective agency then works together with a family court and makes legal decisions for the child to be taken care of by the foster care system.

Unfortunately, State budget cuts have affected California’s department of family and protective services, resulting in hundreds of foster children facing the possibility of moving into agency offices instead of foster homes due to insufficient availability of foster home placement. Children can even wait up to months to receive treatment or counseling due to social workers’ caseloads. The government is faced with an overwhelming demand for services and an inability of social workers to cope with demands.

More than 20,000 children each year never leave the system, they remain in foster care until they “age out.” Studies conducted on foster youth leaving the system without a permanent family or home, have shown steadily negative life outcomes.

Adolescents who grow up in the foster care system are far more likely to grow up with complications and misfortunes than children who have permanent homes. The nation’s foster care system is inefficient and rife with problems; it requires adjustments to improve the wellness of children and their future.

Federal, State, and local governments, communities, and individuals all have a role to play to make sure that foster children do obtain the resources and encouragement they need to reach their full potentials.  

It is important to provide support and hold provisions in budgets to assist states with the child welfare reform that includes foster care and adoption services. Putting “The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act” into effect can increase federal support – promoting adoption and relative guardianship resulting in permanent families; and focuses on improving education and health care for foster children.

Alterations need to be made, for the reason that these children will grow up to construct our communities. Living in healthy environments and receiving all the aid needed, assists foster children to be vigorous adults in our societies.                                    

My desire to make a CHANGE

Before I plan to change things within the entire foster care system, I have to decide where to start. I have been thinking about impact of the inefficient foster care system on the broader communities and their requisite macro stakeholders.  Now, before I reach to the macro level, I must hit the micro level to make a change. I will advocate locally by informing my community of the resources, programs, and organizations for foster care children.

First, individuals should be aware of what is provided in their own communities. Services provided by the Kinship Center (located in Monterey County) includes specialized training for parents, individualized services for each child, ongoing professional support, and the friendship and support of other foster and adoptive families providing the same valuable care to children. The Kinship Center’s foster care program includes short or long term parenting for children with a variety of special circumstances.

Most importantly, communities should know laws, provisions, and policies that impact foster care children. Programs like the National Foster Youth Action Network can become available anywhere. And if it is available everywhere, then many of the foster youth that age out would be able to step out of the horrible stigma foster youth face. Foster youth can become leaders and advocates of their own communities! How awesome is that?

So how can all this be done? How can we provide programs and put things into action?

People who care need to stand up! And for those who don’t care YET, need to become aware of this issue, and how it impacts children’s lives, impacts families, impacts communities, and impacts the U.S. in all. I feel like bringing awareness is a start, awareness to what we all a whole can do to bring all this organizations out of hiding from our foster children and communities.

April is Child Abuse Awareness month

There are 500,000 children in the foster care system in the United States. Children enter the foster care system when their parents or legal guardians are unable or unwilling to endow with care. While that is being figured out, a child protective agency works together with a family court and makes the legal decisions for the child to be taken care of by foster parents.

“Approximately 70 percent of the children who enter the foster care system, were neglected or abused by their parents” (Miller, 2010).

Any child who comes within any of the Welfare and Institutions Code Section 300 descriptions is within the authority of juvenile court, which may deem that person to be a dependent child of the court and handed to Child Protective Services, Foster Care and Adoption.

Child Abuse Awareness month!

The definition of child abuse is physical or emotional mistreatment or neglect of a child. Additionally, it is the failure of being an adequate parent or caretaker that leads to death or serious physical or emotional harm to a child.

 

I have attached the Welfare and Institutions Code Section 300 for those of you who are curious of the guidelines, when a child is removed from their parents or caretakers.

Welfare and Institutions Code Section 300

“Save Lives Foster Care Youth Counts Contest”

Foster Care Kids Need Love Too®

About this contest, View entries, Submit an entry, Winners.

“Save Lives Foster Care Youth Counts” Foster Care Kids Need Love Too is doing a contest for Unity and Support. We are giving away 100 dollar Best Buy gift card, 100 dollar Walmart Card, 50 dollar Amazon card, 5 Starbucks 5 dollar gift cards. and one 5 dollar Amazon gift card. Entries starts today, entries ends May 3, 2013 Good Luck! in thank you for support Foster Care Kids Need Love Too! You can vote every hour. A minimum donation of $1.00 is required  to vote.

Submit an entry, View entries.

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Placement Settings

The foster-home shortage has left a growing number of children in crisis shelters, group homes and treatment facilities, rather than in family homes. Older youth in the foster care system are more likely to be placed in a group home or institution setting than younger children. They are even less likely to be taken into a pre-adoptive or family foster home, including with relatives or in guardianship. In 2009 nearly 54,000 youth aged 13 to 21 lived in a group or institutional setting.

Shown in the chart below, only 4 percent of the children under the age of 12 lived in group or institutional settings, because 84 percent of the children under the age of 12 were placed in foster homes with foster parents or relatives. So the likelihood of being in a family felt, foster home setting decreases when a child hits the age of 13.

 

Placement Settings for Youth in Foster Care (2009)

 

Older foster youth’s goals are significantly different from younger children, in the foster care system. Youth 13 and older are less likely to think that they will exit the foster care system through reunification with their parents or adoption. These children are more likely to have the goals of emancipation or long-term foster care. Furthermore that leads to having the older youth have longer stays in foster care. On average, kids between the ages of 19 and 21, have spent at least 7.5 years under the care of the foster care system.

 

The fact that children are staying in offices, crisis shelters, group homes and treatment facilities for no reason other than, the foster care system not having homes for them is ridiculous. It is wondered why foster children grow up with such negative aspects in their life, but it’s not that hard to see that it is their placement settings that drives that. Children need healthy homes in order to grow up with minor difficulties.

Foster Kids face tough times after 18th birthday

The systems working towards finding children permanent homes don’t always succeed in their goals.

More than 20,000 children each year never leave the system, they remain in foster care until they “age out”. Not all children are fortunate enough to go to a permanent family.

As time progresses, more and more children are aging out because they aren’t getting adopted. People want to adopt children at a young age to see them grow up and raise them with their own habits and cultures. Sadly, children live in the foster care system knowing that emotionally.

Children who age out and don’t go to a loving home face difficulties in finishing school, having a plan for their future, and obtaining a job. If someone does not have a job, there is no income, there’s no money to pay for rent, there for there is no shelter. Foster children can even grow up to be homeless.

More importantly, foster children grow up to face chronically medical and mental problems in our communities, and it seems as if no one is doing anything about it.

Josh Mendoza and Katrena Wingo of Tampa, Florida offers their thoughts on living alone after aging out.

“Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoption Act”

Through out my research, I have found this act that was signed back in 2008, by President Bush. Wanting to pursue this issue personally as my career goal, has driven me to continue to look into it. Here is a little insight on what it is and why it should be used within our foster care system!

The “Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoption Act” was signed into law by President Bush on 2008. This act made a significant amount of changes in the Child Welfare System in order to improve foster care and adoption assistance (Children’s Defense Fund, 2012). Without a doubt, by putting this act in effect, numbers of such negative impact on individuals in the foster care system would decline.

Now, in order for Child Protective Services to use this act in full effect, the government must fund them sufficiently. The government funds these programs as our President supports their troubles and makes provisions in budgets to assist foster care and adoption services. Lastly, putting the act in effect helps to ensure that we as a society will not have to pay later when foster children are forced to leave at the age of 18 without a family or support system (Children’s Defense Fund, 2012). 

This act, if properly followed, would help children and youth in foster care by promoting permanent families. Relative Guardianship is advised, adoption is supported, and improved education and health care are presented (Children’s Defense Fund, 2012). Additionally, this bill will extend all support for youth up to the age of 21 (Children’s Defense Fund, 2012). 

The biggest issue in my eyes is that children aren’t living in a “family” setting. Children is foster care don’t receive enough care to make them feel loved and comfortable enough to think they have the potential to be and do what they desire in life.

 

 

Once they turn 18, and get out of the foster care system, what is it they do? What can they do without any support or family? 

Overcrowded Foster Care System

The issue is that…

Approximately 500,000 children are in the foster care system in the United States (McCuistion, 2009). On average, children stay in the foster care system for almost three years before either being reunited with their families or adopted. (ABC News, 2006). Thus as time progresses, we come to face not having nearly enough possible foster care homes for the amount of children needing a shelter and care.

Rhetorical Timing

40% of the homeless people living in the United States were once in foster care and consist of the fastest growing portion of the homeless population (McCuistion, 2009). However Scott McCowan, the executive director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, states that it does not automatically mean that if an individual is in foster care, he or she will become part of that statistic. Yet there are often serious attachment disorders as a child may be moved from home to home. He says, “Sometimes there are too many children in one home. This is a vulnerable population and they need extra care” (McCuistion, 2009).

A Baltimore study completed by the McCuistion Program tracked foster care children for 12-18 months after they aged out of foster care and found: (McCuistion, 2009).

• 27% of the males and 10% of the females were incarcerated.
• 33% required public assistance.
• 37% had not finished high school.
  
  These statistics encouraged for the “Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoption Act” to be signed into law by President Bush on 2008. This act made a significant amount of changes in the Child Welfare System in order to improve foster care and adoption assistance (Children’s Defense Fund, 2012). Without a doubt, by putting this act in effect, numbers of such negative impact on individuals in the foster care system would decline.