By Laurie Monsebraaten, Toronto Star—Pat O’Brien, founder of New York child welfare agency, You Gotta Believe, visited to Toronto to talk about his pragmatic approach to getting older youth out of foster care and adopted. Toronto child welfare agency the Children’s Aid Society sponsored O’Brien’s visit to learn how he has found permanent families for 400 teenagers in the last 10 years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo: Susana Mariscal

 

O’Brien’s secret is fairly simple—he engages the people who are most important in the lives of teens and informs them about adoption possibilities. O’Brien’s organization looks for one mentor in a teen’s life and asks that individual to learn more about adoption through a class. The person could be a teacher, a relative, or even a parent who is now in a better position to take care of their child.

“Note that we don’t ask them outright if they want to adopt the kid,” O’Brien told about 150 child welfare workers at one of two Toronto workshops. “We just ask them if they would like to find out more.”

He says that this no pressure approach allows for people to attend adoption workshops without feeling a commitment. Regardless, about half of the people who came to a workshop with a connection to a foster child ended up adopting compared to just 4 percent of those who didn’t have a child in mind.

“The effectiveness of this strategy is a slam-dunk,” O’Brien said.

One mother, Elaine Ash, shared her story being a social worker and adopting a 12-year-old girl in 2008. She has been physically and emotionally abused in the seven foster homes before she was adopted. She says that her last foster mother was only interested in preparing her for independence.

“Her foster mother was teaching her how to do her own laundry at age 10,” Ash said.

Her adoptive daughter says she feels, ““much more stable and secure, now that I have my own family. It was a feeling I never really had before.”

O’Brien wants to emphasize that no child is too late for adoption. Creating a support system can be beneficial for foster children of any age, especially when so many aged out youth struggle with chronic homelessness. One study showed that 68 percent of the homeless population surveyed had once been in foster care.

Courtesy of Toronto Star

Original Article: A parent for every teenage foster child

Link: http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1011342--a-parent-for-every-teenage-foster-child