permanence

The National Quality Improvement Center for Adoption and Guardianship Support and Preservation (QIC-AG) is a five-year project designed to promote permanence when reunification is no longer a goal and improve adoption and guardianship preservation and support. 

Our child-oriented culture of the 1950s has changed and the foster care system has failed to adjust. The result is a decline in available foster homes. Headlines like these throughout the U.S.

Noel Anaya “aged out” of the system after 20 years in foster care. He was 21. At his final court hearing, he read a compelling statement about how he felt the California foster care system had failed him.

Imagine yourself without a permanent job, taking part-time work to provide a bare-survival income, constantly aware that the job is temporary. Or imagine that you have a full-time job, but there are continuing rumors you may be laid off.

Healing attachment disorders is a popular topic in foster care. My workshops on the subject have been well attended. Why does foster care produce so many attachment disorders in the first place?

I was 25 years old when I experienced my first flat tire. I had only been driving for four years at that point since, in my day, foster children weren’t allowed to get licenses.

Over the past few months, I’ve had the opportunity to interview a number of former foster youth. At some point during the interview, the question of love, or “why not love,” comes up.