Articles

I was placed in the care of my maternal grandfather and my step-grandmother at the age of 4. My mother had substance abuse issues throughout her life, and my dad was never in my life. Throughout my childhood, I had a strained and, at times, adversarial relationship with my mother. I’ve found myself in very […]

“Hi Maleeka. I pray that you are all doing fine. I’m missing you so much. I’m OK, I’m still in school and trying to get things together. Your dad and I are getting along very well. He says you and Katrina want rollerblades. Sweetheart, write to me and let me know your shoe sizes, and […]

From the first day of out-of-home placement, the goal is to reunify babies and young children with their parents or permanent caregivers. And for that reason, parents or permanent caregivers, extended family members, foster parents, representatives of the legal system and other direct service professionals, become part of a network of support wrapped around each […]

Kinship care has the potential to prompt intergenerational healing in a way that could disrupt future involvement in child welfare systems and concurrently fortify the overall health and structural integrity of families. This offers a promising avenue for transformative change in the realm of child welfare providing family support. In an ideal world, child welfare […]

Twenty-year-old Arnisia Coleman carries around a stack of paper, mostly court documents, which trace her childhood through foster care. Included among the stack are judges’ orders on foster care placements dating back to when she was 3, reports from social workers, along with minutes and motions from hearings. Hardly any photos were taken at the […]

All responses taken from our Facebook groups: Foster Parenting Toolbox and Kinship Parenting Group. Parental incarceration can be one of the hardest topics to talk about with children. We asked current foster, adoptive and kinship parents how they handle these tough conversations. Here’s what they shared: “Depending on the age Sesame Street website has great […]

I will never forget the year my kids went to their great-grandma’s house for a long weekend, just before Christmas. And after the visit, fell apart just days before my most sacred and beloved holidays. Because I am a kinship adoptive mama, my oldest two children’s great-grandma is also my aunt, my dad’s sister. She […]

by Farrah Mina When long-time foster parents Darlene and Curtis Bell learned they would soon welcome four children into their Brooklyn Park, Minnesota home, the couple took a crash-course in preparing traditional Nigerian pepper soup and fufu. Within 24 hours of arriving at the Bells’ home, the siblings were eating the hot and spicy broth […]