National Foster Care Month on May, 2024: What should be done to improve foster care and adoption?

May, 2024 is National Foster Care Month 2024.

Sponsored Deals

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

This is one of those kinds of issues that's hard for anyone to think up a great way to accomplish. The problem is that in order to find the Parents people need to understand more about the Children waiting... and sadly, there are not very many voices speaking up for children who have no one.

When there have been efforts made to create "Recruitment" incentives or information in order to inspire able and willing parents to consider adopting a foster child many have vioced different concerns or objections over just about any logical means of doing so. Or these campaigns have been hijacked by other sorts of things that are only related because they involve the word Adoption.

For Example: National Adoption Awareness Month and National Adoption Day were both inspired and proclaimed to be All About the Children Waiting in the US Foster Care System... A few years pass and it seems that anyone connected in any way with adoption seems to think these proclamations somehow had something to do with whatever their own connection to adoption is...so,

Now everyone Thinks these proclamations are about them--and a soft whisper is heard about the children in Foster Care. It's very Sad and I really wish that everyone would please just give these special days of Awareness to those children who don't have safe parents to complain about.

Another Effort was made in 1997 when Bill Clinton signed the Adoption and Safe Families Act (AFSA) and it made specific statements about: Finding Adoptive Families for Children with Special Needs (special needs include a wide range and most of the waiting children in foster care) AFSA states:

*

*

~~~

~Listing children's profiles on state and local websites.

~Exploring adoption by adults significantly involved in the child's life.

~Featuring profiles of children on local television news, radio and newspapers.

~Adoption celebrations.

~Facilitating a statewide exchange of information among social workers about children and awaiting parents.

~Targeting recruitment to local churches for special needs children, including minorities.

~Providing subsidies to relatives and foster parents who become legal guardians, utilizing IV-E waivers.

~Improving stability with better matches between adoptive families and children. Mental health assessments of the child's readiness to bond and the family's ability to meet the child's needs as well as providing training for families.

~~~

Join the National Guard or foster care/DFCS?

Army or not, money or not, what counts is love - for God and your family. Even love your enemies.

Why boycott Wendy's if you don't oppose foster care adoption?

Like a lot of foundations, the Dave Thomas Foundation started off with good intentions but fell victim to fragmentation of it's original goal.

While finding homes for children in foster care still is a high priority, the foundation has added additional goals that are not keeping with it's original intent.

The addition of the Adoption Friendly Workplace I find offensive. Why are only adoptive parents given benefits? What about adoptees and mothers of adoption loss? Shouldn't we be entitled to claim our legal fees, court filing fees, state mandated confidential intermediary fees, state-run registry fees as adoption tax credits? Shouldn't we be entitled to paid days off when we need to travel to the state of our adoption and grovel before a judge to ask if we can pretty-please have our birth certificates?

The Foundation promotes National Adoption Month but neglects to mention once that these kids from foster care grow up to be adults who should be treated equally.

If the Foundation kept to it's original intent - finding homes for children in Foster Care, then I could support it. If they wish to add additional goals, the only goals I would support would be to raise awareness of the lifelong impact of adoption, not celebrating adoption or giving a pat on the back to corporations who pay adoptive parents.

But Wendy's still has a killer grilled chicken salad.