World Wide Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Before we get to this week’s World Wide Wednesday post, we’d like to wish you all a Happy New Year!

It’s World Wide Wednesday! Here’s what’s news in the world of foster care and adoption around the web:

• Prevent Bullying. Research shows that parents and caregivers who spend at least 15 minutes a day talking with their child can build the foundation for a strong relationship and help prevent bullying. Now there’s a free app that can help. KnowBullying has simple conversation starters to begin a discussion with your child.
• Adoption at the Movies. Interstellar.

• Foster Parents Need More Support to Care for Vulnerable Children. When children are deemed at risk of abuse or neglect and are removed from the family home, they are placed in out-of-home care, either with foster parents, relatives or in residential facilities. The latter is the least preferred model and is often seen as a last resort. As the number of children in out-of-home care increases, it is concerning that the number of foster care families available to support them has not followed suit. Instead, every year, 14 percent of foster carers cease their caring roles. (Continue reading.)
• New Site Features Child Welfare Resources. With the closing of the National Resource Center on Permanency and Family Connections on September 30, the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College transitioned to a new organization providing training and resources on key issues in child welfare. The new National Center for Child Welfare Excellence website includes a number of toolkits, webcasts, and other resources related to foster care and permanency.

Have news you’d like to share? Please post in our comments!

World Wide Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Before we get to this week’s World Wide Wednesday post, we’d like to wish a very Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate!

It’s World Wide Wednesday! Here’s what’s news in the world of foster care and adoption around the web:

• The Joys and Challenges of Parenting Older Adopted Children. Children adopted at older ages—especially those from the U.S. foster care system—typically come to their new families with some history of trauma, abuse, or neglect, and a storehouse of unresolved emotions. But adopting and parenting older children comes with unique joys and rewards as well as challenges. In the November 2014 issue of NCFA’s Adoption Advocate, psychologist and adoptive father Dr. Gary Matloff discusses and shares valuable tips for families that have welcomed older children through adoption.
• 6 Questions Every Adopted Teen Wants Answered. As children reach the teen years, the simple adoption stories of their early years no longer suffice. In this excerpt from Beneath the Mask: Understanding Adopted Teens, we take a look at what goes on in the minds of teens, and offer advice for talking with them. (Continue reading.)
• Start Talking. Not sure when—or how—to bring up adoption with your toddler or preschooler? Here’s where to begin.
  
• Adoption at the Movies. Big Hero 6.

Have news you’d like to share? Please post in our comments!

World Wide Wednesday, December 17, 2014

It’s World Wide Wednesday! Here’s what’s news in the world of foster care and adoption around the web:

• Grand Resources: A Grandparent’s and Other Relative’s Guide to Raising Children with Disabilities. Generations United developed this guide and resource directory to equip caregivers, including those that provide full- and part-time care to relative children, with the national resources they need to help their children thrive, now and in the future. The resource directory serves as a companion piece to the guide and provides a detailed list of the quality services, resources, information, and advocacy tools vital for children with disabilities.
• Foster Parents Can Help Their Students Succeed in School. In order for a child in foster care to succeed in school, his foster parents must be leading the charge and blazing a path as his advocate, fighting for his every chance. In truth, it is likely that the foster student will have no other person fighting for him, as his caseworker’s work load is an overwhelming one, and his teachers may be too busy to reach out with information, or may not have the necessary information about the child that they need in order to meet his needs. Therefore, it is up to the foster parent to be proactive in the child’s life at school. (Continue reading.)
• As foster parents, we must recognize our daily successes. We can all agree that we are much harder on ourselves than anyone else. We strive for perfection in our society, for getting it right the first time every time, and this only causes us to be critical of ourselves. What we often overlook is how much we are getting right and how many times we have succeeded. (Continue reading.)
• Resources on the topic of sexual abuse. For a great new list of Child Sexual Abuse Resources, compiled by NCTSN, please click here.  These resources are available in Spanish and in English.

Have news you’d like to share? Please post in our comments!