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The
Family Finding Program would like to welcome the
following new volunteers to our
family:
Jenna
Darby (Eugene, OR)
Laura
Demme Williams (Eugene, OR)
Laura
Follett (Springfield, OR)
Sandi
Heyer (Trabuca Canyon, CA)
Emily
Walden (Junction City, OR)
Amy
Ripp (Salem, OR)
Jennifer
Braden (Eugene, OR)
Dr.
Dorothy Anderson (Salem, OR) |
What
are the duties of a Family Finding
volunteer?
Those who choose to volunteer as a Family
Finding volunteer make a very important commitment
to a child. Also known as Child Advocates,
A Family Finding volunteer advocates for
abused or neglected children facing a cold family
court system, constantly changing housing, and a
world of unknowns. Although this system attempts
to work in a child's best interest, the true
interests of the child is often lost
amongst the red tape, lawyers, social workers and
parents.
A Family Finding volunteer works to be
that child's voice, to help a child reconnect
and/or find all the family resources and community
connections that made a positive and supportive
difference in their lives.
A
Family Finding volunteer will be expected to
provide as many hours as required for the case.
Typically, a case will require about five to ten
hours per month, and the average case lasts
about three months. The Family
Finding volunteer will stay with the child through
the entire case, which is in the child's best
interest.
Once
a Family Finding volunteer
has a case, he or she will be expected to perform
several duties. The first is to conduct their own
investigation of the case by examining the case
file records of the Department of Human Services -
Child Welfare. They try to locate family members,
foster parents, previous foster parents and
community connections that were previously
involved in a healthy and safe manner with our
foster children. The volunteer will usually have
to devote a lot of time getting acquainted with
the child's history as well as their family
history and connections.
The
Family Finding volunteer appears at all the
AFFEC/DHS meetings pertaining to the child's case
in reference to the Family Finding Program.
Normally, there is one staffing meeting and one
family meeting. Many of these dedicated members of
the community truly care for these children and
make a very positive contribution to the social
services system.
The Family Finding volunteer searches
internet sources to help locate family members and
community connections that would like to offer
support to the children. This same Family Finding
volunteer then contacts these supportive
connections and invites them to attend the family
meeting. Family Finding volunteers are making a
difference in the lives of foster
children.
There are several factors that contribute
to the success of this
program:
Our Family Finding Program is so
successful because of the amount of time our
Family Finding volunteers are able to devote to
the cases they work. Generally, our volunteers
only have one case at any given
time.
When a volunteer takes on a new
child/case, they are asked to see it through to
the end so that the child has continuity,
something often lacking in their lives when
entering the foster care system. This is where
Family Finding volunteers really make a
difference. They are able to dig in and make sure
the child's needs are known and best served with
reconnecting with relatives and community
connections.
As wonderful as the Family Finding program
is, it wouldn't be possible without the hard work
and dedication of its volunteers. These volunteers
come from all walks of life. There are
secretaries, doctors, homemakers, lawyers,
teachers, everyday citizens who want to make a
difference in the life of a child.
Laura
says that she became involved with the Family
Finding Program because she feels that helping
children in reconnecting with relatives is a way
to give something back.
When someone tells her that they couldn't
be a Family Finding volunteer because it
would be too sad, Laura replies, "It would be
so much sadder if no one helped
them." |
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Always
Room For One More - Article Printed through The
Yamhill Valley News
Register.com
By
Starla Pointer 9/16/10
DAYTON - Bonnie Johnson came from a big
family. She was an only daughter, but had seven
brothers.
She wanted a big family of her own. With
the blessing of her husband, Norman, she got
one.
It encompasses three biological children,
Randy, Robin and Rian; three adopted children,
Rick, Patrick and Deborah; and about 288 foster
children who, over the years, have known the
Johnsons either as "Mom and Dad" or as "Grandma
and Grandpa."
They adopted Rick from Korea at the age of
2 1/2, but the other two adoptions were less
conventional. They adopted Patrick at 23, after 19
years in foster care, and Deborah at 46, after
fostering her as a child and keeping in close
contact for decades.
"It's been quite an interesting life,"
Norm said.. . . .
Read Full Article
Here |
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Washington-Oregon
Pact Will Ease Placement Of Foster
Children
PORTLAND - An interstate agreement signed
Monday will have a lasting positive effect on
certain foster children, officials said.
The agreement, the first of its kind
between Washington and Oregon, gives social
workers the ability to cut through layers of
bureaucratic statutes and expedite the process of
placing a child from one state with a relative who
lives in the other state. The process could take
as little as one
week.
The agreement, effective Oct. 1, applies
to children from Clark and Cowlitz counties in
Washington and Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington
counties in Oregon.
Approximately 150 children are expected to
be affected each
year.
"All of us knows someone who travels
across the Washington-Oregon border every day, and
children are no exception," said Erinn
Kelley-Siel, an assistant director with the Oregon
Department of Human
Services.
Currently, when the state temporarily
takes a child away from a parent judged to be
unfit, it can take 60 to 90 days to place a child
with an approved relative who lives in a different
state.
Even with an emergency court order, it can
take 30 days, said Maya Brown, manager of the
interstate compact program for the Washington
Department of Social and Health
Services.
Kelley-Siel said that when searching for a
temporary home for a child, relatives are always
at the top of the
list.
She recalled a 6-year-old girl crying when
she found out that her mother, a methamphetamine
addict who relapsed, had to go into inpatient
treatment. After the girl understood that she was
not going to be able to go to treatment with her
mother, she started crying again at the idea of
having to go live with a
stranger.
"I think that's the face of this
agreement," Kelley-Siel said during a news
conference Monday at the Oregon State Office
Building.
The border agreement was signed by Dr.
Bruce Goldberg, director of the Oregon Department
of Human Services, and Susan Dreyfus, secretary of
the Washington Department of Social and Human
Services (DSHS).
Goldberg said "the boundaries of states
are really arbitrary," and the agreement allows
the agencies to better serve families whose
members live in both
states.
He recalled a telephone conversation with
a Vancouver woman who couldn't understand why it
was going to take so long for her to take
temporary custody of a young relative in
Portland.
"This is really about having our
governments work better," Goldberg
said.
Officials from Washington and Oregon have
been talking about trying to reach an agreement
for a decade, Kelley-Siel said, and earnestly
working on the agreement for approximately a
year.
"This may not be the best testament to
government efficiency," Kelley-Siel
said.
Statutory regulations are different in
each state, which complicates the process, said
Brown of DSHS. Under the border agreement, a child
can be placed with a relative on provisional terms
as soon as the relative clears a safety check,
then a social worker in the "receiving state" will
do a full evaluation of the placement.
Working out the border agreement didn't
require special funding, officials
said.
Harry Gilmore, Brown's counterpart in
Oregon, said other bordering states have
interstate agreements regarding foster children
but he hadn't heard of any agreements with a
placement period as short as seven
days.
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I have been married for 34 years to my
great husband, John. We also have two wonderful
adult children, K.C. and
Kate.
My
career as an educator has been long and varied.
Last fall I retired after 37 years in the field
of education. I've mostly been a grade school
teacher, but I have also spent time as a
librarian.
After
returning from two years of teaching pre-school
in Cairo, Egypt, I was faced with too much free
time and began my search for meaningful
volunteer positions. My first commitment was
made to ProBoneO, a free veterinary clinic for
the pets of homeless people (www.proboneo.org). I loved volunteering two Sundays a
month, but desired for more to do during the
week.
After
talking to Roz Slovic (see highlighted Family
Finding volunteer for June 2010), I took the
training and was hooked on the importance of
such a project.
Part
of my teaching career was spent at the Whitaker
School located in Eugene, Oregon. During this
period, our family was a foster family to one of
my students. The Family Finding process was a
way that I saw for children in foster care to
stay "connected" with all the important adults
in their young lives. In June of this year, I
was asked to take the volunteer position of
Follow Up Coordinator. This is a perfect job for
me as I am able to attend the family meetings
and meet all the family members. I then connect
with them again to follow up on their
commitments and family plans. My job is to check
in with the family members and other connections
on a three, six, and 12-month basis to keep
those healthy and loving connections
going.
I
have been able to develop and maintain a system
where I am able to follow up with the family
members and connections in a timely manner. I
love my position as the Family Finding Follow Up
Coordinator! |
Family
Finding Recruitment
Ad
Being a Family Finding volunteer does
not require any special education or background,
simply the desire to help abused and neglected
foster children. Our job is to find their family
members and community connections that do care
for them and want to play a supportive, loving
and healthy role in their lives.
Often
times, the rewards of being a Family Finding
volunteer are not immediate, but there are many
rewards in helping these children. Many of our
Family Finding volunteers say it's been an
intensive, heart-wrenching experience. "It's
hard to see something that needs to be done when
so many other issues are being addressed." But
despite the heartache, they say they're very
glad they got involved.
The
first steps to helping with this cause are
completing the application materials, passing a
background check, and participating in some
training modules. After successfully completing
the training modules, the volunteer is assigned
his/her first case. A volunteer's average time
commitment to a case is approximately 5-10 hours
per month. Volunteers are asked to stay with a
case until it is closed, three months on
average.
Often times we hear, "I trust you
because you're not getting paid." We really are
just there for the child!
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Q. If a volunteer decides to subscribe
to a paid site for the family finding process
(say a year membership), is there one above the
others you have found as an organization to be
the most helpful?
A.
I have never subscribed or had anyone else that
subscribed to a site that I am aware of, so I am
not a great resource for your first question. I
like ancestry.com, but I go to the Eugene
Library, on the 2nd floor and it's
free there. I just bring a flash drive with me
and then copy all the documents that I need for
my contact sheet and internet searching.
Q.
What is the typical length of time (between the
steps) in cases where AFFEC has a successful
initial meeting with Family and Step 6 in your
module? The Family Ties: Transition planning to
family phase?
A.
Each step is consecutive and consistent, so they
flow from one to the other. On Training Module
#6, slide #3 explains the time frame from one
step to the other and beginning to
end.
Q. What percentage of your cases have
that outcome?
A. 98% of all of our family finding
cases consist of a Family
Meeting.
Q. What type of model/guide
for Kinship Care and Family Finding does your
organization use?
A. We follow Kevin Campbell's model as
closely as possible from a small non-profit
organization level without access to State
Mainframe Informational databases and
systems. (Click Here)
Q. Can I request follow-up and
notification of case closure and outcome of the
cases I contribute to? I would find that
information important to
know.
A. When we (AFFEC) do the 3, 6 and
12-month follow up process and reports for our
cases, we cc the case volunteers so that they
can see the outcome of all their hard
work.
Q. The Federal Inmate site link was
blocked on my printout/module. Can you provide
me with that information?
A. For the Federal Bureau of
Prison Click Here
Q. Is the US Search report information
provided in the report for family finding simple
or due diligence? I know it has a number of
paragraph's according to your module, however,
it also stated one is normally provided.
Are there times we will not have this
information to access?
A. We will always receive a US Search
for the biological mother and father as long as
the biological father is listed on the birth
record.
Q. I'm not in the Eugene/Springfield
area and due to other engagements I will
probably not be able to File Mine in the near
future. Would you like me to be involved in the
calling of the family members to arrange the
Family Meetings? I know you gave me a complete
overview of your process, so I just wanted to
clarify the parts you would intend to have me
involved in.
A. Your volunteer role with A Family For
Every Child would entail the internet searches
and telephone calling (Engagement). We have a
few Family Finding Case volunteers that
live outside of Eugene/Springfield and we
do all the file mining and meeting attendance on
the cases. |
Readers'
Forum: Expanding Chances For State's Most
Vulnerable Kids
By Reed Connell 9/11/10
Guest
Commentary for Contra
Costa Times - Part of the Bay Area
News Group (California)
ON AUG. 31, the very last day of the
legislative session, the state Senate passed a
bill that will make sweeping changes to
California's Child Welfare System.
Passed by the Assembly earlier in the
year, AB12, the California Fostering Connections
to Success Act, now sits on the governor's desk.
With the stroke of his pen, the bill would
become law, bringing millions of federal dollars
to the state every year, and providing older
foster youth a chance at the bright, productive
future they deserve. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
must sign AB12.
Built upon a solid foundation of
research, experience and moral imperative, AB12
has two major provisions. First, it will
immediately bring at least $60 million in
federal funds to support California's KinGAP
program, which annually assists more than 14,000
former foster children living with relative
guardians.
Second, it will extend support for
foster youth to age 21, rather than turning them
out on the street when they turn 18, as the
system does today.
In a moment defined by extraordinary
financial duress, AB12 brings much-needed
revenue to the state to fund the noblest of
purposes: supporting relatives and guardians who
choose to bring foster children into their
homes.
Since 1998, California's KinGAP program
has ensured that children who by definition have
suffered terrible abuse or neglect are supported
in living with a grandparent or other relative,
in a home, as a family.
The public child welfare system has no
higher goal for foster children, and research
has consistently shown that youth do best when
part of a loving, stable family. AB12 matches
every state dollar spent on KinGAP with a
federal dollar, fortifying the program in a time
of fiscal calamity, and assuring that the bonds
of family are strengthened and honored.
But the hard truth of the matter is that
California, just like all other states, acts as
parent for many other foster children for whom a
stable family setting is elusive. Historically,
these youth "age-out" of the system at 18 when
the law deems them adults, despite research
showing that children from intact families
continue to rely on their parents until an
average age of 26. Yet our current system
demands that abused and neglected children,
raised in an unstable and struggling system,
take sole responsibility for themselves a full
eight years earlier. As the federal government
recognized by passing the law that paved the way
for AB12, this is unconscionable.
AB12 offers much more than another three
years in foster care. It creates new services
and options that allow older foster youth to
develop the comprehensive set of skills
necessary to establish themselves as independent
adult citizens. For example, youth may live in
supportive transitional housing programs, much
like those offered by California's THP-Plus
program, which for 10 years has consistently
improved rates of educational attainment and
employment among participants.
With California experiencing an
unemployment crisis and urgently in need of an
increasingly educated workforce, AB12 is not
only morally responsible, but is a prudent
investment in the state's next generation.
The federal funds available to
California through AB12 provide our state an
extraordinary opportunity to improve the life
chances of our most vulnerable children.
In the longer term, our cash-strapped
state would reap huge savings through declines
in unemployment, homelessness, teen pregnancy,
public assistance and incarceration,
historically among the unfortunate outcomes for
young people turned out by the system at age 18.
Gov. Schwarzenegger must make the morally right
and fiscally prudent choice and sign AB12 into
law.
Reed Connell is the Executive Director
of the Alameda County Foster Youth
Alliance |
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Helping
Your Foster Child Transition To Your
Adopted Child
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From the Child Welfare Information Gateway -
Protecting Children & Strengthening
Families
Helping
Children Understand Their Own
History
Parents can help children review and
understand their previous life experiences to
clarify what happened to them in the past and
help them integrate those experiences so they
will have greater self-understanding.
Foster/adoptive parents and children's
therapists and social workers can help children
in answering important questions about their
lives-both to assess their readiness for and to
prepare them for staying permanently in their
family
There
are many ways families can help children in
answering these important questions and in
understanding their unique history. Life books,
ecomaps, lifemaps, and lifepaths are all tools
used by foster/adoptive parents and children's
therapists to help children of various ages
understand and find ways to visually represent
the answers to questions of how they came to be
separated from their birth family and where they
will ultimately belong (Fahlberg,
1991).
The
most important information to include in any of
these tools to help children understand their
past history is information about the child's
birth and an explanation of why and how the
child entered foster care and how decisions
about moves and new placements were made. A baby
picture and pictures of birth parents should be
included, if possible.
If
no information is available, children can draw a
picture of what they might have looked like.
Statements such as, "there is no information
about Johnny's birth father in his file," at
least acknowledge the father's existence. The
importance of honesty, developmental
appropriateness, and compassion in any
explanation of difficult and painful
circumstances that bring children into care is
important for children.
While on the surface it may seem easy
for a child to stay in the family in which he or
she was living as a foster child, in reality,
the internal process for a child and family is
much more complicated. Allowing children to just
"drift" into adoption without acknowledging the
very significant changes for the family may lead
to later difficulties. Foster/adoptive parents
need to help children consider and understand
their own history and reasons why they cannot
live with their birth family, help them adjust
to this loss, and help them transfer their
attachments to the foster/adoptive family.
In helping children, families will need
to consider each child's needs as they are
related to the child's age, health, personality,
temperament, and cultural and racial
experiences. |
How
can you contact A Family For Every
Child?
Call,
email, or visit us online or in
person!
 880
Beltline Rd.
Springfield Oregon
97477
office
- 541-343-2856
toll
free - 877-343-2856
fax
- 541-343-2866
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