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.

Get a PDF copy of this blog on where foster kids go to live.

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Foster Kids - Foster Children to Receive New Clothes from Fund Drive

Many people get sad or angry when they hear about the challenges that foster children endure while in the foster care system. Some may feel that there is little to be done to help these kids. If you ever doubted the ability of one person to make a difference, doubt no more.

Jackie Crusha has a new pastime that is brightening the Christmas season for hundreds of foster children in Kings County in California. Last year, Crusha started a drive to collect new clothes for the area foster youth. Her efforts resulted in 400 foster kids getting new clothes for winter.
 
The Kings County Human Services Agency is partnering with Crusha as she launches another drive that started Oct. 1. The goal again is to gather new clothes, gift-wrap them and then give the clothes as presents to hundreds of foster children on Christmas.


Many people don't realize that when a foster youth is removed from their home, it can be under very tense and explosive circumstances. Parents may react violently to having Child Protective Services come into their house and taking their children. Knowing this is a possibility, the goal is to remove the children as quickly and safely as possible. Children often enter the foster care system with only the clothes they were wearing. This could be a pair of pajamas, a night shirt or just a diaper.

Foster children often will move through the system will very few clothes, and almost all of them used. Getting brand new clothes is a present that many foster kids can only dream of. So the simple act of giving new clothes that these children can call their own can be a huge boost to their morale and self-image. The drive will last until Dec. 10. On Christmas, the foster care agency will give the gifts to the children.

Concerning Crusha's charitable work, Ruth Robles, King County Department Specialist, said:

"We’re absolutely grateful for her help, especially since she’s reaching out to a very sensitive group.” 

Nothing could be more charitable than to help foster kids. Starting a collection at church, selecting an evening at a restaurant where a percentage of the sales are donated, or starting a clothes or toy drive are just a few ways people can help these children. One of the best ways is to support efforts to find relatives of foster youth so these kids move out of foster care altogether into forever homes.

Crusha is setting an example that many women and men can follow. Helping a foster child this winter would be a great way to get into and share the holiday spirit.

Regards,


  Richard

Richard Villasana
Find Families In Mexico
760-690-3995

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

Get a PDF copy of this blog about woman running a clothes drive to benefit county foster kids.

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Foster Kids - Foster Care Activities and Progress Report

There's something exciting about getting a progress report. Sure, there are the low points and areas that can be improved, but the best part is seeing where you are doing really well. So with the 2014 third quarter coming to an end, I thought it'd be good to let you see our progress report because many people like to hear good news about foster children. Our success means more kids are moving out of the foster care system and into forever homes.


Fifty-five percent of our time is spent on doing research, international communication, documentation and follow up on active foster child cases. We spend 30% of our time answering inquiries from agencies across the country and working to bring agencies on board so they can start sending us their foster children cases.

Working with county agencies involves a lot of documentation, and preparations can take months before we get their first case. The remaining 15% of our time and energy is spent on marketing, fund raising and administration. Every week we get calls and emails from agencies saying that they just heard about us.


We're in our second year of offering our services pro bono (free) to foster care agencies and non-profits. You may wonder why we offer our services pro bono. Before 2013, when we would get a call from a foster care agency, we would explain our research services along with the cost for our international work. The cost was less than $40 which does not cover the expenses to handle a foster youth case. Yet many agencies often said they didn't have a budget to pay that amount.

Our mission is to make a lasting, positive impact on the lives of foster children and allowing $40 to be a roadblock to helping a foster child isn't acceptable. Therefore in 2013, our organization launched a new program so that foster care agencies could and do get our services for free. Guess what happened? We doubled our case load last year. Guess what’s happening this year? You got it. We have already doubled our caseload and will probably triple it.


Bottom line: many more foster kids are moving out of foster care into forever homes usually with relatives in the U.S. or adoptive foster parents.


How are we doing concerning our caseload? It all depends. Every case is different. We have to point out that we can and do locate family members in just a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, several weeks to a couple of months can often go by while case workers get back to us with their results from our findings. Sometimes, our first effort is successful. Other times we have to launch a new search effort before we find a foster child's relatives.

Presently we have eight active cases. Each case involves three to five people. Our cases average between two to three months. It takes many weeks of time and effort when we have a case where a foster kid's only known relatives live in the mountains with no Internet, telephone or cell reception.


We are fast approaching the tipping point for our organization. We have multiple cases from several states with more agencies finalizing details so they can start sending us their cases. County officials are talking with neighboring counties that have already used our services. We've handled cases in seven states and expect Arizona to be number eight by October.

On the donor side, let's just say that an increase in contributions and volunteers would be outstanding. Supporters are the life blood of our organization and allow us to continue to offer our services pro bono to county agencies.


We are gearing up to launch a crowdfunding project in November. Gia Heller, social media marketing guru, has already offered to support our project. Others such as Star Devi with Spin Digital Publishing have also offered to help us. There are many ways that you, too, can participate and help a foster child.

As anyone in business knows, no matter what your day-to-day activities are, you still have to look at the numbers if you want to survive and thrive. Our goal is to make a lasting change for at least 200 foster youth in 2015. That will require a budget of $100,000. We're very optimistic that when New Year's comes around, we'll be poised to succeed.


Be a part of the solution and volunteer to help get more foster kids into forever homes.

Regards,


  Richard

Richard Villasana
Find Families In Mexico
760-690-3995

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

Get a PDF copy of this blog on the state of our present and future foster care efforts.

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