When I meet people and discuss foster care the question that inevitably comes up (even in a five minute conversation while I’m working a booth) is “what if I get too attached?” And sometimes it is followed up with, “I just couldn’t give them back.” Well, first, if you...
Fresh on the heels of May’s Foster Care Awareness Month, I know that some of you may be wrestling with whether or not to throw your hat in the foster parenting ring. So I want to pause and put a little something out there: not everyone should be a foster parent. Yes,...
Continuing in the vein of what happens if a child is not reunified or adopted, today’s subject is Guardianship. And while it does happen, guardianship is not terribly common within the realm of foster care. It is, however, something I think many people, at least in...
When the Stay-at-Home order first began, teachers and parents scrambled to figure out a way to keep school-aged children active and engaged from the safety of home. While not an ideal situation, many tried the best they could to adapt. NOW PARENTS ARE FACED WITH THE...
If you are under the impression that care for foster youth ends promptly at the age of 18, and then they are asked to leave their foster homes, please know this is not the case. This is something that has been incorrectly publicized, and Indiana DCS is doing its...
So I want to circle back to something I alluded to a couple weeks ago. Children who are not reunified with their biological family are not automatically adoptable by a foster family. There are several possible avenues that DCS may deem most appropriate. These include...
Researchers at the Indiana University School of Social Work have received a grant to address the issue of child abuse in Indiana. One goal of the program is to establish family resource centers at places where families already gather, like schools and libraries. This...
I don’t know about you, but I love a good “underdog” story. You know what I’m talking about, right? We’ve all seen them (or have probably at least heard of them): “Rocky”, “Hoosiers”, and “The Hunger Games” to name a few. Why, then, do we fail to cheer for the...
WHEN IT COMES TO KIDS AND MENTAL HEALTH, IT MIGHT SEEM LIKE A SERIOUS CONVERSATION. BUT TURN THAT ON ITS HEAD, AND YOU’VE GOT AN EXPERIENCE YOU MIGHT ALL ENJOY. Mental health means emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Our mental health affects how we...
Written By: Sandi Lerman, MA Ed. Community Educator Building a Healthy Brain Babies are born with billions of tiny brain cells ready to form connections and build pathways for growth, learning, and human connection. When a young child is raised in a safe and...
