August 03, 2011

Changing the foster care industry: Foster-to-adopt

No system is perfect. While the foster care system has goodness in its core, and actively works to give children a home, there’s no doubt that a lifetime spent shifting between families will undoubtedly take its toll. Often, just as a child starts to attach to the family they’re living with, they’re taken from the home and placed somewhere else, not being given the opportunity to plant roots anywhere, or to experience a concrete idea of home or family. In many cases, while the intention is to eventually find the children a home, they end up rotating between families until they’re 18 and are no longer a ward of the state. At that point, what is the child’s concept of family? Who do they go to in times of need, to celebrate holidays with — what’s home?

In St. Thomas, Ontario this was becoming an epidemic. Parents had too many children to foster, adoption waiting lists were endless — it seemed like there was no way to place a child in a secure home that they wouldn’t have to leave (if a home was even available). An adoption agency there, Family and Children’s Services of St. Thomas and Elgin, closed their waiting list, and began instituting a policy of foster-to-adopt, where children who weren’t likely to go back to their birth homes were placed with foster families with the intention that they would adopt the child when the child was available for adoption. This movement is spreading throughout Canada and is sparking a lot of interest in the foster and adoption communities. With foster-to-adopt, the importance is placed on the children, and the amount of shuffling around to different families is drastically reduced: children are placed in a foster family knowing that they will eventually be adopted by that same family. An article in the Toronto Star explains how the program works, and its thriving results:

“At first, the agency placed children most likely to become Crown wards with foster-to-adopt families. But it became hard to predict which children would not return home. So in 2005, under Flegel’s leadership, the agency began to phase in a policy of using only foster-to-adopt homes for all children under age 2. By 2007, the practice expanded to every child under age 6, and as of last year, every child under age 12 is placed immediately in a foster-to-adopt home. The agency hopes the policy will eventually cover all children under age 18.

The results have been powerful. Since 2005, half of the children who are adopted through the agency have been served in just one home, versus 22 per cent in a similar-size CAS. The agency, which has about 50 foster-to-adopt families, has had no trouble recruiting parents to the cause. In fact, Elgin County has a surplus of parents who are providing care for children from neighbouring agencies.”

This is a prime example of how systems can, and should, be willing to adapt for the better.

Image via: Toronto Star