Stay Home.
Go Home.
Find Home.
Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to attend a Working
Group Gathering of the Re-Envisioning
Foster Care in America (REFCA) Movement. It was an inspiring
experience. The combination of energy, enthusiasm, creativity, and commitment
to helping vulnerable children that I encountered there was truly exhilarating.
The above six words were shared as part of a presentation by Lauren Frey,
founder of 3P
Consulting LLC, and they constitute just part of what excited me
about this gathering.
Here's how I understood the intention of those six words as they relate to child welfare: Stay Home highlights the importance of helping vulnerable families early on, providing resources and services to help children thrive in their original homes, thus preventing the need for the child's separation from the original family. Go Home focuses on the need for interventions to strengthen families when a disruption or crisis occurs, with the goal of reuniting children with their original families while also prioritizing the child's safety and well-being. Find Home acknowledges that sometimes the original family is not able to provide a safe environment in which the child can thrive, even with interventions, and then the focus must shift to finding the child a new permanent home in a stable and loving family, while also continuing to honor the child's ongoing connection to the original family.
As an adoptee (and
foster-adoptive parent in a very open adoption), it warmed my heart to hear a
number of different people at this meeting speak to the importance of original
family and heritage. The sacredness of the connection to the family of origin,
whether we are raised in that family or not, was honored in various ways
throughout the morning. I was also encouraged by the wide range of approaches
to child welfare. This month (National Adoption Awareness Month) is a time when
many people are turning their attention to the needs of the high numbers of
children in foster care who are awaiting adoption. That need is urgent, but adoption is
not the only way to help our society's vulnerable children, nor is it the only
way for individuals to get involved.
At the REFCA gathering, I
heard people talking about ways to better support children in the crucial early
developmental years as well as strategies to improve the outcomes for
those on the other end of the spectrum, young people age 18 and older who are transitioning
into adulthood and increased independence while still needing family and a
place to call home. I heard people talking about mentorship and other ways to
engage supportively with youth at various stages of their journey. I heard talk
of the need for better education of therapists, teachers, parents, and others
about trauma and the complex emotional needs of children being raised in
families other than their families of birth.
Participants ranged from foster/adoptive parents such as
myself to a host of child-welfare professionals, including social workers,
legal professionals, therapists, and more. No single idea was held as the
sole solution; rather, each vision was explored as a possible part of the
whole. It was big-picture thinking with a collaborative approach to social
change. Perhaps most importantly, no one was saying, "It can't be
done." Everyone was saying, "How do we do it?" What needs to be
done to better serve these children and youth? How do we identify what works
and build on that while also exploring new and creative approaches? How can we
improve?
At one point, I heard some one use the phrase "a
culture of possibility." That is indeed an apt description of what was
being created through the various conversations and collaborations happening at
this gathering!
The REFCA Initiative was started in 2010 by the Friends of Children,
The Rudd Adoption Research Program at UMass Amherst, and The Treehouse
Foundation. You can learn more about the movement by visiting their website or
facebook page.
Is there something
inspiring happening in the field of
child welfare in your local region? If so, I'd love to hear about it. Please leave a comment and let me know.
