Foster Kids - CASA Providing Help to McKean County Foster Children

There are many non-profits that have a mission to help foster children. One of the most important of these organizations is CASA, court-appointed special advocates. This national organization trains volunteers who are then appointed by a judge "to represent the best interests of abused and neglected children during a dependency case."


CASA volunteers are the eyes and ears of the court. They interact with foster youth, social workers, the judge, family relatives and any involved specialists such as child psychologists. Without a CASA, the needs of a foster child can be pushed aside by a parent, relatives or case workers. The CASA speaks for the child.

Many counties in Pennsylvania have had CASA volunteers for years. CASA has just initiated their program in McKean County, Pennsylvania. Although CASA is a national organization, there are many other counties around the country where there are no CASA volunteers.

Even though there is now a CASA presence in the county, this should not imply that all foster kids will have a CASA. The number of children entering the foster care system has been climbing steadily despite improvements in the U.S. economy. Foster care statistics reveal that there are simply not enough volunteers to handle every foster youth case.


Two of the best ways a person can become involved with helping foster children is to support CASA and services that locate a foster kid's family members. Becoming a CASA requires from 15-25 hours a month where a volunteer will work with a foster youth and their case. It is a heart-fulfilling activity.

Supporting services such as Find Families In Mexico is the other way to help these children. The first step to moving a foster kid out of the system is to locate and notify their relatives. Without completing this initial stage, tens of thousands of foster youths will remain in foster care until they age out.

Many cases have been brought to our organization by CASA. These volunteers saw where foster care agencies had failed to locate family members of several foster children and coordinated efforts that resulted in relatives being located. These foster kids are now moving through the system and into forever homes with loving, caring family members.


If you want to help foster children but aren't ready to be a foster or adoptive parent, consider being a CASA. If you aren't able to be a CASA, then support efforts to find family members. If you want to help foster kids, trust me. There is a place for you.

Regards,


  Richard

Richard Villasana
Find Families In Mexico
760-690-3995

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Foster Children - Foster Care Stages to Moving Foster kids into Forever Homes

You probably know that the focus of Find Families In Mexico is to get children out of foster care. Our organization's vision is for "all U.S. foster children to have a permanent home." We make this happen by locating a foster child's relatives, the critical first step in the process to move foster youth into forever homes. Many have asked about what happens to foster kids once their relatives have been found.


When we have completed our work, called family finding, a case moves to the second stage called "engagement." During this part, agencies will notify all the relatives who were identified in the initial family finding stage. This list may include as many as 60 adult relatives.

Relatives go through a screening process to ensure they are willing and able to take in and care for a foster child. When an appropriate match is identified and verified, the process advances so that the foster youth will be put in relative placement.

Sometimes no adult relatives are found during the family finding process. Once evidence is presented that every reasonable effort has been made to identify and locate the child's relatives without success, the court will often allow the case to move toward adoption or to placement with unrelated adults.


Our organization has a success rate of 95% resulting in relatives being located. The question that people often ask is, "What happens to the U.S. foster children whose relatives are found living in Mexico?" Our work often leads to other, possibly unknown, family members who are living in the U.S. In these cases, foster children go to live with their U.S. relatives.

Another common question is, "What happens if the only relatives found are living in Mexico?" First there is the matter that virtually every case we handle involves U.S.-born children who had at least one U.S.-born parent. The U.S. courts are not known for shipping U.S. citizens to other countries. Just imagine the headlines if a U.S. child was sent to the Ukraine or Liberia!

You may argue (and please do so in the Comment section below) that foster kids should be with their families. That is a philosophical aspect that we will leave to others although we did work a case where sending the child back to live with the birth mother would have been completely amoral. What we can share is that in every case we have worked, the foster youth stayed in the U.S. either with relatives or adoptive parents.


The goal of foster care agencies is to move the 400,000 foster kids out of the system either back with their parents or into forever homes. Foster children benefit from finally having a stable home and adults who care about them. Taxpayers benefit because of the savings of hundreds of millions of dollar that are spent annually supporting children while in the foster care system.

Family finding, locating a foster kid's relatives, is vital to the foster care mission. More funding needs to be directed to this activity so that agencies and taxpayers aren't paying for damage control while foster youth continue to spend years forgotten in a government institution.

Regards,


  Richard

Richard Villasana
Find Families In Mexico
760-690-3995

PS. Share your thoughts and ideas below and share this post with others.

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