“After Adoption” Program offered as part of National Adoption Month

  • By Teri Stein
  • November 17, 2011
  • 281
                        
Summary: The number of children needing foster care and adopted families in Tuscarawas County is surprising. During National Adoption month, the Tuscarawas County office of Job and Family Services will present a special program to help adoptive families along with spotlighting the information on their informative website. The numbers are staggering to anyone unaware of number of children needing temporary and permanent families in the area. Recently, 106 children were in foster care or adoptive placement in Tuscarawas County. At times, the agency has had up to 150 children needing housing. A variety of situations are the cause such as the birth families being involved with drug problems, domestic violence, and the physical and sexual abuse of children. “Drugs are probably the biggest reason children are placed in foster care,” said Gayle Hahn, placement services supervisor at Tuscarawas County Job and Family Services. The agency works with foster parents who want to adopt and adoption through their agency is at no cost to the parents. “Foster parents are given the first opportunity to adopt a child in their care, but their main goal is to work to reunify kids with their parents,” said Hahn. When adoption becomes necessary for the well-being of the child, the priority is to keep siblings together. “We go to extreme lengths to keep sibling groups together. It’s hard enough for them that they’ve lost their parents,” said Hahn. Of the 23 adoptions finalized this year was one sibling group of four children, two sibling groups of three children and two sibling groups of two children. “Children older than age nine are harder to place; they have been traumatized longer,” said Hahn. The organization expects to finalize another seven adoptions before Dec. 31 for a total of 30 adoptions this year, but the process before and after isn’t easy. “There’s an adjustment for the children and their parents,” said Hahn. To ease that adjustment period and help adoptive families, the TCJFS will present a free program on Wed. Nov. 30 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. called After Adoption – Understanding the Life Long Journey. “The program is from an adoptees viewpoint and it gives a unique perspective,” said Hahn. All families with adopted children are invited to attend. To register call 330-339-7791 ext. 172. Though it’s difficult to foster a child and then give the child back to the birth parents, foster parents see their job as an important one. “They are doing what they do for the children because what they are doing stays with the child forever,” said Hahn. “A number of families keep in touch and have for years. It’s nice for the kids to maintain these relationships.” “Foster families are all ages and economic groups. They are folks who have a lot of patience to have an agency involved in their life,” added Hahn. During foster care, workers check on the family no less than one time per month. “Once an adoption is finalized, it’s like the child was their own from birth,” said Hahn. “If a family needs help, they can call us, we don’t call them.” The TCJFS maintains a website that people interested in providing foster care can access to get more information. Foster parents need to be licensed; one of the requirements is the completion of a 36 hour training course offered once each year. The training includes such topics as child protection, development, attachment, separation, how to prevent and deescalate crisis, and the effects of care giving on the family. Background checks for all household members are required. Once licensed an additional 20 hours of training is required each year. “Seventy-six percent of foster families want to adopt. Once they’ve adopted as many kids as their house can hold, they drop out. It’s a revolving door,” said Hahn. Of the current group of foster families, the longest serving family has been with the agency eight years. There are other guidelines for foster families to follow, a child may share a bedroom with another child of the same gender but must have their own bed. Other guidelines call for no more than two children under the age of two in a home and no more than four children under the age of five in a home. Homes must also be inspected for safety. Numerous resources are available online at the Tuscarawas County Job and Family services website at www.tcjfs.org including information on becoming a foster parent, newsletters, search information for adult adopted persons and information on other programs for families. To access photos of children in need of a permanent family go to www.adoptionphotolistingohio.org. Other Adoption month events held were an adoption advocacy event at the Riffe Center in Columbus and the 21st Annual Conference on Promoting Healthy Attachments at Oglebay Resort and Convention Center in Wheeling, West Virginia on Nov. 21 and 22. More foster and adoptive families are always needed. “We’re looking for families to commit lifelong and we’re here for assistance,” said Hahn.


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