Surfing on CNN, I came across this article on kids in the Foster System and University. A shocking 2% of kids from foster care in the USA go to University. Why? They often miss out on formative experiences that give them the tools that they need to cope. It makes total sense to me that this would be the case. Kids who live through multiple traumas and are re-damaged over and over again live in a "fight or flight" world. Their brains haven't developed properly and the organizational skills often lack.
Welcome to the Kinship Care Support site. This site is here to be a resource for you amazing families out there who have selflessly stepped up to help care for family members, whether young or old.
This site is a membership site that encourages conversation on the subject of caring for family members. These may be young (and being fostered) or older and need extra attention from family.
A friend of mine, who was in the foster care system, shared her thoughts and insights recently at Ignite in Boulder. Ignite gives you 5 minutes to do a slide show presentation about some topic. She chose to talk about why foster kids are cool.
Last week Mel and Nate made a very special trip, they went to the Broomfield Health and Human Services (HHS) office to drop off our paperwork, and get the approval process officially started. We are so excited. Next steps, Sherry, the foster care supervisor from HHS, starts the background process, we get fingerprinted and take the core training classes.
FosterClub is a site for youth in foster care. The site's "About Us" describes themselves as:
FosterClub is the national network for young people in foster care.
Every two minutes, a child’s life changes as they enter the foster care system. Currently, there are over 513,000 young people in foster care in across America. FosterClub is their club — a place to turn for advice, information, and hope.
Foster Cares, Inc. is a non-profit (501c3), located just South of Denver, Colorado. But our mission is nationwide.
Our main focus and primary mission is providing (at no cost) discounts and benefits, as well as time saving tools for those most involved in the actual care taking of foster children.
A true offering of tangible benefits for foster parents has been noticeably absent from this nation’s foster care system. Anyone who is a foster parent or foster care provider or knows one would quickly agree.
My wife and I always knew that we wanted to have a kid or two. We also were pretty certain that we didn't want to increase the surface population. We knew that there were lots of kids both here in the United States and abroad who were without parents for one reason or another.
This book was written by a girl who spent many years in the foster care system in Tampa, Florida. It gave me a lot of insight into what foster kids are thinking and the fears and frustrations they encounter. I was even surprised to learn why so many kids still have anxiety after their adoptions are finalized.
I think it is a must read, especially for those of us who adopted children out of the foster care system. It will definitely change how you think about their situations.
