If you are interested in this event, you can find more information on their website, IFAPA.

Can’t make it to West Des Moines? You can participate in their Virtual Walk, walk in your own community and still fundraise for your chance to earn great prizes!

We here at Adoption World Publishing, applaud the IFAPA for their great work.

Here’s the truth.

45% of Americans think children in foster care have entered the system because of juvenile delinquency.
Truth: Children enter the system after experiencing neglect, abandonment or abuse.

46% of Americans mistakenly think foster care adoption is expensive.
Truth: Foster care adoption is not expensive, and financial support is available.

67% of Americans considering adoption think the biological parents could take the child back.
Truth: Once a child is legally available for adoption, the birth parents no longer have parental rights to the child.

On any given day in North America, more than 500,000 children are in the foster care system, and nearly 145,000 of them are available for adoption, just waiting for the right family to find them.

• There are 423,773 children in the U.S. foster care system; 114,556 of these children are available for adoption. Their birth parent’s legal rights have been permanently terminated and children are left without a family.
• More children become available for adoption each year than are adopted. In 2009, 69,947 children had parental rights terminated by the courts, yet only 57,466 were adopted.
• Children often wait three years or more to be adopted, move three or more times in foster care and often are separated from siblings. The average age of waiting children is 8 years old.
• Last year, 29,471 children turned 18 and left the foster care system without an adoptive family.
• Adopting from foster care is affordable. Most child welfare agencies cover the costs of home studies and court fees, and provide post-adoption subsidies. Thousands of employers offer financial reimbursement and paid leave for employees who adopt and Federal and/or state adoption tax credits are available to most families.
• Nearly 40 percent of American adults, or 81.5 million people, have considered adopting a child, according to the National Adoption Attitudes Survey. If just one in 500 of these adults adopted, every waiting child in foster care would have a permanent family.

Learn more at the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.

Adoption World Publishing also has materials available for use with foster-to-adopt children.

Your Foster Care Memory Book

My Adoption Workbook

Foster-to-Adopt Information

The Red Scarf Project sends red scarves in care packages to college students so that they have a hand-made item to wear. While they wear the scarf, they know that they are loved.

OFA put the first red scarves into Valentine’s Day Care Packages in 2005. That year we received 3,500 scarves to send to OFA students away at colleges and vocational schools. The next year, thanks to the support of online knitting blog sites, they received an amazing 15,000 scarves. And the program just keeps growing.

I love this idea. People are always wondering how they can make a difference. This project allows people to work on a small scale but leave a big impact on a foster child.

Kudos to the Orphan Foundation of America.

If you would like to be involved in this worthwhile project, click here
http://orphan.org/what-we-do/programs/red-scarf-project/

“All children deserve loving, safe and permanent homes,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “It is gratifying that most states continue to excel in promoting the adoption of children from foster care. I sincerely thank every adoptive family that has welcomed a child into their home.”

States received $4,000 for every child adopted beyond their best year’s total, plus a payment of $8,000 for every child age 9 and older and $4,000 for every special needs child adopted above the respective baselines. The year 2007 is the baseline.

“America’s communities benefit when children grow up in stable families,” said David A. Hansell, HHS acting assistant secretary for children and families. “We’re very pleased that the adoption incentives program is helping states improve their programs and place more children into homes that are theirs forever.”

The states will be using the funds from this adoption incentive award to improve their child welfare programs. Many of the states mandate life books for their children and will be able to use this money to purchase these much needed items.

We applaud Secretary Sebelius and the 38 states and Puerto Rico. With the economy still recovering, these federal awards could not come at a better time. Many adoption agencies have been trying to make do with “piece-meal” lifebooks, or no books at all. With this money, children will be able to get quality books in their hands.

Congratulations

As I have said previously, I believe that creating a lifebook for our foster and adopted children is one of the most important things we can do for them. A lifebook contains the chronological history of a child’s life, pictures, artwork, memorabilia, along with information that reflects a child’s understanding of the difficulties and changes that have occurred in his or her life. The lifebook also highlights and celebrates the child’s strengths, hopes and dreams. For a child, lifebook work is a path to their memories and to a reinterpretation of their memories. It is also a path to understanding and integrating their memories. Lifebooks are great for children in foster care or who have been adopted. They promote healing and provide concrete understanding of the reasons why they were unable to return to their birth families. Lifebooks give children permission to love and cherish their adoptive families as well as their birth families.

The “Putting the Pieces Together” DVD provides instruction on how to do Lifebook work with children using a teamwork approach. It was great to see how the lives of these children have been impacted in a positive way by being able to discuss and work through issues they are dealing with. It made me very proud to see that the teenage girl on the video was using our teen lifebook, The Real Me. She had very high praise for what our lifebook meant to her and how it helped her. Making lifebooks available to the children is such a rewarding experience for me.

Help me get the word out. Lifebooks are great!

Earlier this week my sister-in-law mailed me an article from the July 12 New York Times. It was about the wedding of Victoria Rowell and Radcliffe Bailey. Victoria is best known for being an actress. She was in “The Young and the Restless” and “Diagnosis Murder”, as well as movies. Victoria is also a child advocate and author.

Victoria spent her childhood in foster care. In 18 years she was with many different families and collected lifelong memories from each. She shares her experiences in her book, “The Women Who Raised Me”.

In the article from the Times, her relationship with her husband is discussed as well as the beautiful ceremony. A group of the foster moms that raised Victoria led the processional into the church. The last foster mom she lived with, Sylvia Silverman, was quoted as saying, “It’s a wonderful union”.

After reading this article, I was intrigued by Ms. Rowell’s life as a foster child and her work with foster children today. I did a search on her name in order to find her website. Here is some information I learned after reviewing her site.

“Rowell Foster Children’s Positive Plan” was founded by Victoria Rowell in 1990 as a non-profit organization. The group strives to enrich foster children’s lives through artistic expression. The many programs allow children to attain a strong self-image, self-confidence, and a sense of personal achievement. At some of their camps, for example, children are able to reunite with siblings they were separated from when they went into foster care. Her website states that some studies have found that up to 75% of children in foster care are separated from at least one of their siblings when placed in foster care. Another focus of their programs is to promote participation in the fine arts or athletics.

Rowell has also been the national spokesperson for the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s direct service arm, Casey Family Services. She has contributed much in the education and support of foster children. She uses her status as a celebrity to bring awareness about foster care to a national audience.

Ms. Rowell is someone to commend for her achievements in helping children. I recommend you visit her website and read some of the success stories written by foster children who were helped by RFCPP.

www.rowellfosterchildren.org

Victoria truly honors the foster families that raised her by the life she is leading today. AWS wishes her the best in her union with Mr. Bailey.

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