Focus on Permanent Connections 624-10-45-05

(9/15/06 ML 3048)

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All teens in foster care have some emotional attachments to others in order to have survived. They have created their own “families.” These “families” may consist of friends, parents of friends, current and/or former foster parents, teachers, coaches, cottage parents, maintenance staff, relatives, older siblings or friends who are now adults, neighbors, church members, Guardians ad Litem, social workers, employers, counselors, etc. We need to ask these youth about these connections and to help them strengthen these relationships. There are often more than a dozen people currently in each youth’s life that could be approached about offering a permanent home to the youth. Asking youth to invite persons of their own choosing to participate in their planning reviews helps us to know who some of these people are.

  1. Establishing a mentor program within the Chafee program, matching the youth with a volunteer who has similar interests;

  2. Researching the interest of relatives, neighbors, and friends who were once involved with the youth as a younger child but have since lost contact;

  3. Contacting older siblings who are now on their own;

  4. Helping the youth to develop Eco-maps to identify their support systems;

  5. Involving youth in volunteer activities that also engage adult volunteers from faith and civic groups, such as blood drives, environmental restoration, working one on one with disabled children, fund drives for community recreation programs, etc.; and

  6. Involving community persons in the Chafee program as volunteers.

 

Even if these activities or efforts do not result in adoptive placements, they will help youth to develop the kinds of friendships and supports that they will need as adults.

 

Dorothy Ansell of The National Resource Center for Youth Development had this observation about permanency: “In reality, permanency is not a placement. It is a state of mind. It is about positive relationships. It is knowing that there is someone out there with whom you are so strongly connected that they will always be there for you, at any time of day or night.  It is knowing that you have a family who will celebrate birthdays, weddings and graduations with you.  It is knowing where you will go and what will be expected of you on important holidays.  It means being connected, legally or not, through relationships that last a lifetime....”1

 

In spite of our misconceptions, young people do want to be a part of a family, perhaps not the standard sort of family that was portrayed on television in the '50's, but a more eclectic family. If we asked them, they could probably tell us who their family members would be.

 

 

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1 “Permanency vs. Independent Living,” Youth Development Update, Fall/Winter 2002.  National Resource Center for Youth Development, University of Oklahoma College of Continuing Education and ACYF.