Bay Area Homes for Kids

Recent Stories on Foster Care and Adoption

Life Books: Special Scrapbooks That Can Change a Child’s Life

By TINA KELLEY

EAST ORANGE, N.J. — Tawanda Parker, 26, keeps the photo album stored carefully in a thick plastic bag. Inside, there is a picture of her first day at a foster home, holding a blue stuffed bear while her sister holds a pink bunny. Another shows one of Ms. Parker’s brothers turning 8 at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant somewhere in New Jersey. And, preserved in color, the last day she spent with her birth mother.

“If you can look at my face, my mom reached over because I didn’t want to leave,” Ms. Parker recalled as she flipped through the pages. “She tickled my neck. I’m very ticklish.”

For children placed outside their homes because of abuse or neglect, such photo albums, known as “life books,” can be a crucial mechanism, social workers say, to help them remember — and later, understand — where they have been and where they are going. Caseworkers in New Jersey decided recently to provide such life books to all children placed outside their homes, and to encourage social workers to take snapshots of them with their foster parents and siblings, and their new neighborhood, in the first month after placement.

“Youths who have life books have a very tangible tool,” said Eileen Crummy, director of the State Division of Youth and Family Services. “They can look back at it, and not have to reconstruct the memories for themselves.”

Ms. Parker, whose fresh-scrubbed apartment has photographs on walls, tucked in mirrors and framed en masse on tables, has trouble counting the places she lived after she entered foster care when she was 11. She calls her life book “my baby,” and cradles its worn pages, fussing over the “e” from “Life” that kept falling off the cover.

“There was Joralemon Street,” she began. “We lived there first with that family, and then we moved to the south, but we didn’t stay there because we were abused in that home.”

Ms. Parker stayed in eight foster or group homes before landing at a home for teenage mothers at age 16. In some places, she and her three siblings stayed together. In most, they did not. But they picked up and lost pseudo-siblings along the way.

“This little boy here, we became close,” she said, pointing to a snapshot of a grinning child. “We were all in the same foster home until he was placed somewhere else.”

After her biological mother died, Ms. Parker said, she used bits preserved in the life book to contact a newspaper in Trinidad in search of relatives. “Without it I don’t know if I would remember my mom’s face,” she said.

Deridre Carter, who was Ms. Parker’s social worker for many years, sometimes asks the children she works with if they will share their books with their therapists.

“When they go to therapy with issues of loss and separation, this is something tangible for them,” she said. “If I don’t have anything permanent in my life in terms of consistency, a life book is like the glue that holds it all together.”

For Jarisa Brannon-Davis, 18, who lived in at least four foster homes before being sent to a group home, the life book played a crucial role in her adoption. She was 13, and boxing in the East Orange Police Athletic League program run by Sgt. DeLacy Davis. When another officer told Sergeant Davis that one of the pictures in Jarisa’s life book showed her in a suggestive pose, he put the book away in his file cabinet, as he did not want anyone who might adopt her to get the wrong impression.

Later, when a person who wanted to adopt Jarisa needed a picture, she asked him to return the book.

“He said, ‘I’ll adopt you,’ and I started to cry, since I wanted to ask him for six months, but couldn’t bring it up,” Ms. Brannon-Davis recalled.

She has three life books. One includes an old page labeled “Activity #4, Family Activity,” with instructions to “draw a picture of your family doing something together.” Under the drawing, she wrote: “We’re playing and hitting each other.” There are also snapshots of favorite social workers, and a game of Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin.

“As I look back now, it helps me realize I was that kid, you’re still a kid, you’re not that old, even though you tend to act like an old person,” Ms. Brannon-Davis said, smiling as the family cockatoo squawked in its cage. “I’m surprised I held on to it. You lose a lot of things when you go from place to place. These were the three things I didn’t lose. It meant something, because I didn’t lose it.”

Lisa Haase of Ridgewood, who adopted her foster son, Ghana, 6, said that life books were helpful to the many children who go through the child welfare system feeling abandoned by their birth parents.

“Look at this picture,” she said, pointing to a picture of Ghana’s birth mother, whom he calls Mama Mary, smiling while giving him a bear hug. “Does this lady look like she wants to abandon this child? She fought tooth and nail for him for two and a half years. That’s good for him to know.”

Ghana’s book, which Ms. Haase and her daughter compiled, has carefully labeled pictures of him with Mama Mary, and little captions saying “I love my mom.” There’s also a wrapper from a Ghana chocolate bar, which the Haases handed out to friends at his christening. And a baby picture of him drooling rather extravagantly.

The books help cement adoptive and foster families by breaking taboos, said Rebecca Cerutti, a social worker at the family outreach program at Robins’ Nest, a nonprofit organization in Glassboro that runs group homes.

“If a child is sitting there hearing the foster parent saying wonderful things about the birth parent, that is just ideal,” she said. “The message is that the birth parent is someone they can talk about, without hurting the foster or adoptive parent.”

Kevin M. Ryan, the commissioner of the Department of Children and Families, said that thumbing through life books spurred him on in the agency’s effort to place children in permanent homes.

“They remind you there are no unwanted children, just unfound families,” Mr. Ryan said.

Some 2,000 children in New Jersey are waiting to be adopted; as of the middle of November, the state had exceeded its 2006 goal of finalizing 1,100 adoptions.

Lori Khan, 25, of Williamstown, whose life in foster care or group homes began when she was a year old, recently pulled out her life book to show her 3 -year-old son, Cory.

“He was just saying, ‘Mommy plays basketball,’ and he was just like grinning and smiling looking at the pictures,” she said. “It was too cute.”

“It brings back good times that you had,” she added.

Originally published: December 19, 2006 in the New York Times

Foster Youth’s Eternal Quest for a “Forever Family”

by Jill Duerr Berrick

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

IN THE last year, unprecedented attention has been focused on flaws in the foster care system. This is encouraging because the state of foster care demands our sustained attention if it is ever going to improve. But make no mistake. Foster care is by no means an end in itself. The true happy ending for a child who has been removed from his birth parents is a “forever family,” whether that means returning to his own birth family in a healthy setting or being adopted.

And there’s good news on that front: The number of adoptions of children in foster care has risen dramatically, with many states doubling or even tripling adoptions. Of the approximately 300,000 U.S. children who enter the foster care system each year, about half return to their birth parents. Some are sent to live with relatives, and about one in 10 are adopted by families outside their own.

Recent estimates show that one-third of American families have seriously considered adoption. More than one million women have taken steps to look into adopting a child, and child welfare agencies across the nation logged almost a quarter of a million phone calls last year from adults considering adopting a child from foster care.

But something happens early on in the process, and the large majority of families interested in adoption drop out. Some parents fear that they won’t be up to the task of parenting an older child, or a child with special needs; others are surprised by the up-front time investment for training and preparation. Research suggests that changed agency practices can improve the odds of a completed adoption, including thorough information for parents about the children available, and the commitment of services and supports following adoption.

A legally binding lifelong relationship between parent and child, adoption provides a fitting resolution for foster children and would-be parents. Though some critics raise the potential of trauma caused to a child if the adoption doesn’t work or is terminated, studies suggest that this is a relatively infrequent event.

Take the case of stability. In foster care, moves from one home to another are typical. A majority of children move four or more times over the course of just three years. Just think how many new parents these children must greet and get along with; or imagine adapting to new rules and routines every several months.

With adoption, children have the best chance of attaining a “forever family.” Research indicates that most adoptive parents are satisfied with their experience and would recommend adoption to others. Some children have special needs, however supportive services can ameliorate many of these issues over the long-term.

Many children adopted out of foster care fare well both in childhood and as young adults. Importantly, compared to children living in long-term foster care, adopted children are more likely to express a sense of security about their living arrangements, and clarity about their role in the family.

Although the cost to the public of supporting increasing numbers of adoptions has grown markedly in recent years, a cost comparison of adoption to foster care clearly favors adoption. Foster care serves as an appropriate, temporary setting for children in need, most of whom will return home or to other family members. But in the long run, adoption provides a better solution for children who have no hopes of returning to their birth families.

And so, as we observe National Adoption Month this November, it is worth noting that while more children than ever are being adopted out of foster care, more than 100,000 children nationwide are still waiting for a “forever family.” Bay Area residents considering parenting might well want to look into this challenging and gratifying alternative. For more information and to find your local child welfare agency, visit www.bakids.org.

Jill Duerr Berrick is a professor of social welfare at the University of California, Berkeley. UC Berkeley.

Follow Up: Governor Signs Foster-Care Bills

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signs eight bills designed to make a difference in the lives of tens of thousands of California’s foster-care kids. Editorial, San Francisco Chronicle, 9/22/06, San Francisco, CA

No Refuge: A False Promise to Foster Youth Discusses the slow distribution of funds allocated to assisting emancipated youth. Editorial, San Francisco Chronicle, 9/15/06, San Francisco, CA

Governor-help these kids 4 bills intended to improve California’s foster care system await the governor’s signature. Editorial, San Francisco Chronicle, 9/3/06, San Francisco, CA.

August

Catholic agency finds way out of adoption ban Alliance with other group gets around same sex parent issue Catholic Charities of San Francisco changes the type of services they provide in order to include same sex couples. By Elizabeth Fernandez, San Francisco Chronicle, 8.27.06, San Francisco, CA.

Single mom who became a banker to raise large brood reaches golden years. But she’s not retiring, she’s adopting 64 year old Kit Cole adopts an 18 month old baby. By Edward Guthhman, San Francisco Chronicle, 8.17.06, San Francisco, CA.

7 year old boy can go home Mother removes family’s pit bulls to regain custody of son Andrew Louie is returned to his mother after an eight month separation. By Elizabeth Fernandez, 8.15.06, San Francisco, CA.

Sade’s story-lessons for all Sade Daniels, an emancipated foster youth, faces the the world alone at 18. Editorial, San Francisco Chronicle, 8/13/06, San Francisco, CA.

July

No time to be complacent An 83 million dollar increase in the state budget dedicated to imporving foster care is approved. Editorial, San Francisco Chronicle, 7.30.06, San Francisco, CA.

Governor Increases funding for Foster Care and Child Welfare by $82 million.

To find a way home Discusses the plight of older foster youth and several bills designed to help them. Editorial, San Francisco Chronicle, 7.7.06, San Francisco, CA