A publication dedicated to making foster care and adoption in North Carolina the best they can be
by Glenda Clare • While COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging for all North Carolinians, grandfamilies have been especially hard hit. More than 89,000 North Carolina children and youth are members of grandfamilies created when a grandparent or other family member raises the child of a relative unable or unwilling to parent. Although most heads of grandfamilies are under age 60
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by Jamie Bazemore • The pandemic has brought loss and hardship to so many of us. But for me it has also been a reminder of how adaptable and creative humans can be. Even when faced with disruption and challenges, we somehow find a way to innovate and move forward. I hope when COVID is behind us we will continue
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by LeAnn McKoy • COVID-19 created the opportunity for the NC Division of Social Services to review its policies and practices to ensure the safety of children and families. We all have learned to wear masks, wash our hands more, and maintain physical distance from family and friends. New processes were adopted, while safety of children and families remained the
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The Foster Family Alliance of North Carolina would like to thank each and every one of you for all that you do for our families. We celebrate every victory that you and your children have overcome together. As we announced in the last Fostering Perspectives, we are working with organizations throughout the state to host conferences. We are still discussing
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When reading profiles of waiting children, I’ve noticed there is often a request for the child to maintain contact with a birth family member, such as a sibling or grandparent, after the adoption. What type of contact is allowed? Is that safe for the child and for adoptive families? Each adoption is unique, especially those involving children in the foster
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by Rose Marie Wentz • Make a top 10 list of what you like about your child. Send it to them; may be one each day. Send pictures of yourself doing different activities, in different places, making funny faces, etc. Make a video or audiotape of you reading bedtime stories. Send it to your child along with the book. Send
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It can be hard for foster parents and staff to balance ensuring that a baby is well cared for without taking over the parenting role and sidelining the young parent. Here, Martha Edwards, the director of the Ackerman Institute’s Center for the Developing Child and Family in New York, explains how foster parents and staff can help young parents gain
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by Glenda Clare • Shared parenting was my goal when I decided to assume the custody of my cousin’s youngest child. To be supportive, I accompanied my cousin to Child and Family Team (CFT) meetings and paid for required drug testing. In my head, I was singing Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family.” I knew everything was going to be alright
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by Donna Foster • Tips to help you engage, motivate, and support birth parents as they learn to parent their children in healthy ways. Foster parents are taught about the things children feel when experiencing loss. We are taught in MAPP about the grief cycle and how to help children through each stage. Yet we are not always taught that
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by Jonathan Rockoff • Shared parenting was their biggest fear about being foster and adoptive parents. But they overcame this fear in an inspiring and remarkable fashion. I met Jonathan and Sally Six of Wake Forest, NC five years ago when they first became licensed foster parents. They already had one child of their own, “Mark,” and wanted to open
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