A publication dedicated to making foster care and adoption in North Carolina the best they can be
by Dina Gerber, MS, LCSW and Kelly Sullivan, PhD • Providing children with permanency is always part of the case plan from a DSS and legal point of view when children enter the child welfare system. However, from the child’s point of view, the term permanence can be abstract and hard to understand. Even understanding why they are in care
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Placement When children enter your home, everyone and everything is strange to them. They are wondering what they did wrong to make them leave their parents. They are afraid and confused. In this situation, possible child behaviors can include crying, screaming, shaking, running away, cursing, defiance, silence, bed-wetting, and fear (e.g., of the dark, the bathroom, people in the home).
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by Tonia Deese • As a resource parent, you have an important role in supporting all areas of permanence for children and youth in care. Permanency is not just about long-term living arrangements and who has legal responsibility for the child. In this article, I will focus on cultural permanence, or maintaining a child’s connection to their family, traditions, race,
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Moves for children and youth in foster care can be traumatic. They can also undermine permanency efforts. Changing placements can increase the risk a young person will develop behavioral challenges that make it harder to achieve reunification, adoption, or another permanency outcome (Casey Family Programs, 2018). The opposite is also true. A stable placement that meets their needs offers children
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In 2017, North Carolina implemented an extended foster care program, Foster Care 18 to 21, for youth who exited foster care at age 18. National research shows that former foster youth are more likely to be unemployed, homeless, have no high school diploma, have a low income, and be incarcerated compared to the general population (National Youth in Transition Database,
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SaySo (Strong Able Youth Speaking Out), is a statewide, North Carolina-based association of youth aged 14 to 24 who are or have been in out-of-home care. This includes all types of substitute care, including foster care, group homes, and mental health placements. Every year on the first Saturday in March, SaySo holds a gathering where youth from all over North
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by Shanita Dildy-Goings • I was 13 years old when my foster parents first proposed adopting my big sister and me. My big sister said that she would think about it, but I knew she had already made up her mind not to take them up on their offer. They were not bad parents, just not the parent she truly
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by Jennifer Nehlsen • “When I was 16, I wasn’t ready for permanence in a family because I was hanging on to the hope that even after six years my mom would sober up and bring me back home. Since I was 13, I had never been in a placement longer than four to six months and I didn’t foresee
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