Foster Parenting

Save a child. Become a Foster Parent

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Why I became a Foster Parent

We can never know what cards we will be dealt with from life. The card that we received was my wife’s bareness; she was unable to bare children. After ten years of marriage and being without a family of our own I took it upon myself to see what foster parenting was about and to explore if it would be a good fit for our marriage.
Our first step was a home assessment to make sure it met state requirements to take in children and that we were financially stable.

Training involved some weekdays and a couple of weekends so that we could learn how to discipline, maintaining a healthy home environment, medical, psychological and academic needs and how to address them. Training also included; what to do in a worst-case scenario that involves returning the child to social services.

Social services were very accommodating in our county. We had no problems getting everything we needed in order to have a foster child.

The day came that our home received certification and became open to fostering.

It was hard work and uncharted territory but we hung in there and surprised ourselves at how well we did. Our lives were enriched beyond words; we grew as a marriage and eventually adopted two daughters from the Foster Care System.

If you have a place to accommodate one child, I urge you to give it a try you never know what can happen when you open your door and heart to a lost, terrified and troubled child. Sign up for an informational meeting and then training. A child’s heart and soul is waiting for stability and unconditional love of a home in a time of need.

PSA Foster Parenting click on the PSA link to watch the video, please

Foster Parent Informational meeting.
When: Monday, June 12, 2018
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Where: Santa Maria Inn 212 S. Broadway Santa Maria, CA.
For more information contact: Mr. Foster Care (222) 234-2282

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Foster Care Interview Tips
by Autumn St. John

If you’ve applied to be a foster care parent, you’ll be asked to undergo a home study interview. This involves a representative of the home finding agency you’ve applied to come to your home and interviewing you. The home finder will ask you about your life, your parenting and family values, your reasons for wanting to foster and your ability to welcome a new member into your family. By thoroughly preparing for the interview and answering the interviewer’s questions appropriately, you’ll not only find out whether you’re suited to foster care but will also be assigned children for whom you are specifically suited.
Preparation

During the interview, the interviewer may ask you how your children feel about you becoming a foster family. So, talk to your children in advance of the interview so that you’ll be able to give the home finder an honest answer. Then, arrange for a babysitter to come to your house before the interview starts so that she can take your children to another room and look after them during the interview.

Interview

Questions the interviewer may ask you include “What was your childhood like?” “What education do you have?” “What’s your parenting style?” “How do you and your partner support one another?” “What activities does your family do together?” “How do you deal with family issues?” “How do members of your household communicate with one another?” Answer each question by just telling the truth. Relax during the interview by keeping in mind that the home finder is asking these questions to find the best family for each child in the foster care system.

Follow-Up

Follow up your home study interview by sending a thank-you note to the interviewer will show her you appreciate her visit and that you have good manners. A follow-up note also gives you the opportunity to mention anything you forgot to tell the home finder in the interview. Decide whether to post a handwritten or typed note or to send an e-mail. Posting a typed letter is the most formal option, while handwritten notes are more personal. If you’ve been in contact with the interviewer via e-mail prior to the interview, it’s appropriate to keep using e-mail to communicate with her. Send the letter to the interviewer within two days of her visit.

Tips for Interviewers

It’s not only the interviewee who has to put the work in before, during and after the interview. To help the home-finding agency choose the right foster family for a child, the interviewer should prepare questions that are the tailored to the interviewee. In the interview, listen carefully to the interviewee’s answers and ask follow-up questions to delve further into the subjects you discuss. Take note also of the person’s non-verbal behaviors. Assess the interviewee’s answers and behaviors within the context of her culture. For example, some cultures may use specific words and phrases in ways that are different from how your culture uses them.
(https://work.chron.com/foster-care-interview-tips-18997.html)

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Goals, Roots and Shoots

I have come back to school with a heart and mind ready to further my impact, inform my actions and build upon what I have learned in the field from grassroots organizers. I have had time and practice in working on issues in my community and have established some strong roots in organizing. I chose to enroll at Prescott and go back to school so I can learn processes, philosophies and methodologies to help my work flow be more informed, intentional and hopefully more successful.

I have spent the last twenty years involved in designing and implementing different levels and types of community actions, projects and movements. I have been mentored by people who have helped our community from heart, dedication and necessity. There have a been a lot of lessons in the careful nuanced ways that people can be reached, inspired and launched forward to make change. There have also been missed opportunities and failed efforts. I am rooted well in our style of community organizing, but I need to grow.

My primary goal for this semester is to come into the study of community organizing with a truly open mind and open heart and learn ways to employ them. In just the first couple weeks I have read and learned several ways to describe what I already do – sometimes without the intention or focus that might have helped impact the movement more if I had more understanding of the formal process. I am ready to learn about the models, structures and ideas that have been put together by people who tested and applied their theories into practice.

Another goal of mine is while learning, absorbing and integrating is to be careful and intentional in bringing these practices into my work without losing the grounding and careful attention to nuance that so important to work in my Native community. I want to be sure that in my excitement I don’t become less effective in doing my work. One of the ways that I hope to implement this learning in a trial test run is by integrating the lessons learned through the coursework into my mini-internship which will focus on developing and executing a campaign for an upcoming fundraising event hosted by our local community foundation. This project will allow me to interact with a wide variety of people in the flow of work while we focus on an issue that is very distant from traditional cultural practices. The topic and structure of fundraising, which is very Western in culture, will allow me that wiggle room I may need to mess up a little in trying to implement, where movements that are closer to culturally important and sensitive issues offer a very slim margin for error before you are outsted.

Together, my deep rooted hands-on learning and experience combined with learning formal organizing will hopefully have some immediate positive outcomes as we move through the semester and my projects. I intend to see new growth, new shoots, in the way I think about and execute organizing. It may sound like a tall order, but there are things in our work here in our community that I am looking at differently already.

Jonathon

Goals for Organizing 1

My goal for Organizing 1 is to learn as much about the different ways of organizing as possible.  Having been through Organizing 3 and 4, I am coming into this course with some knowledge.  I would like to build upon the things I have learned and come out of this class really feeling like I understand the different ways organizing is done and which method might fit best with different issues.

There are so many people enrolled in this course who bring with them varied experiences, many who are already doing community organizing on various levels.  I plan on learning from them as well as from Professor Saadeh.  I feel like hearing as much about real-life organizing will boost my confidence as well as give me insights that I did not come to this program with.

My mini-internship will be another primary goal for this class for two reasons. First,  I plan on doing as much as I can to get my candidate elected.  I plan on performing assigned tasks, like coordinating volunteers, as well as continuing to volunteer my time texting, calling, and canvassing until election day.  Second, I plan on learning as much as I can about the process of political campaigning as possible.  We have just gone through a major push to reach as many Texans as possible to see who will be voting and how they will vote.  If a voter is already pro-Cruz, they are eliminated from our outreach database and we focus on 1) keeping voters already Beto supporters in touch with the campaign, and 2) educating undecided voters on Beto’s stance on issues.  The next phase is to make sure every Beto supporter gets out to vote.  It’s fascinating, in that I believe this campaign, based on Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, is doing things differently than the traditional methods.  There is a lot of excitement and momentum happening!

Lynn Soukup

Caitlin’s Goals for Organizing 1

My goals in this course and in this academic program are to deepen my understanding of how change happens and to further articulate the roles I can play in making that change. I believe strongly that decisions should be made by the people who will most directly affected by them. This belief has led me to explore ideas and movements like workplace democracy, community land trusts, cooperative businesses, local economies, community-controlled development, and grassroots organizing. I’ve made a career in communicating for and about these ideas.

In order to approach my goal of articulating roles for myself, I hope to do more reflection and become more aware of the way my identities inform my beliefs and actions. I’m eager to hear the other students in this course explore their self-awareness, too, and for us to think about our personal lenses and biases in relation to each other.

I’ve worked for six years with Bread & Roses Community Fund in a variety of roles. This photo is of me (in blue) with friends and colleagues at a Bread & Roses event in 2015.

In this Organizing 1 course and the courses that follow, I’m looking forward to examining the components of successful community organizing. I especially like case studies as a way to apply theory to real situations where we can retroactively trace cause and effect and discuss the decision points that led to a certain outcome. Any time we embark on a new campaign, the conditions are completely unique: the people involved, the place, the political environment, recent history, even the weather. But there are always historical examples of organizing we can look to for advice about how to proceed. I’m always interested in using history as a compass for navigating power and change today.

I’m also interested in discussing scale and scope in organizing. I have a vision of racial and economic justice. I know many other people have this vision, but it feels…big. How do we take small steps towards this vision? I understand that the foundation of our organizing is building power together to make change. Some of our fights could go from start to finish in a week, and others were started by our great-grandparents and will be carried on by our great-grandchildren. How do we stay motivated to organize and how do we motivate other people to join when it’s a struggle to survive? How do we win attention? How do we make big things happen with small resources? I’m looking forward to exploring these questions in the coming weeks.

— Caitlin Quigley

MY AFSC MINI INTERNSHIP

My mini-internship is with the non-profit organization American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). Before I jump right into explaining the work that I am focused on allow me to first provide a bit of context about the internship. Back in June, I contacted Jacob Flowers, the Regional Director for the southeast region, and asked if there was a need for an intern to assist with project work. I was totally surprised that he said there were a few projects that I could assist with.

Fast forward three months, I am coordinating a South Carolina Speaking event for AFSC’S Southeast region. Jacob and a few others plan to visit South Carolina along with other communities, from as far south as Miami, Florida, New Orleans all the way up to Baltimore, Maryland. Jacob and other speakers will discuss AFSC’S international and regional, and AFSC will share how community leaders can connect to AFSC as a resource. The South Carolina Speaking Tour kicks off Sunday, September 30th at Columbia Friends Meeting in Columbia, South Carolina.

Here is what is quite unique about this tour; AFSC has never conducted Speaking events in cities where an AFSC office is not located. Meaning, in the past, most presentations were linked to AFSC cities where an AFSC has a home base. This is the first intentional public event where AFSC will visit cities where there is not an AFSC office, such is the case for South Carolina.

While both North Carolina and Georgia have AFSC office locations, there is not an AFSC office in South Carolina. There had been an AFSC office back in the seventies but no longer. Jacob had decided to extend the Speaking Tour to communities in the south that did not have an AFSC office. So far, the people I have contacted have a genuine interest in AFSC coming to visit.

My internship plans for this semester are basically centered to support the Speaking Tour. I have been instrumental in expanding outreach in South Carolina to organizations that know little about AFSC’S social justice work. Also I reached out to allies that are very familiar with AFSC’S supporting role in activism throughout the last century.

I have gained a tremendous amount of experience and self-confidence in my ability to lead the community outreach work in South Carolina. I knew I was totally capable of being the driving force behind this work. Although, I think where I may have felt a bit anxious about the outcome results. In short, I simply want to please the AFSC team and I hope that Jacob recognizes my talents and my work ethic. On the other hand, this work continues to raise a few challenges.

Some of those challenges had to do with communication styles, time management and personal agenda. It is fair to say that almost everyone has a unique way in communicating. This is even more true when things like age, race and culture are a part of the equation. The majority of people that I am contacting are from the Quaker community, and many of them are senior citizens. They appreciate face to face meetings and on occasion there have been many of meetings to review items we have discussed several times. I’m not sure if this is because of their age, even with a note-taker or that they are forgetful. I have had to exercise a great deal of patience and understand this is how they operate. So I am more than willing to accommodate.

As for time management and personal agenda, I have also altered how I manage my community time. I have always been a planner. So I appreciate people that have a healthy respect for my time. However, when collaborating with others, organizers should be flexible because you will encounter others that may not have the same strengths as you, when it involves managing time respectfully. Lastly, personal agenda. This is a big one. I have learned that if you are a professional individual there is a high percentage that you will often have an agenda that could be tied to your work. In other words, business people usually are always thinking of ways to grow their business. Well, so are organizers. We are thinking about the connections we have made, the allies and ties that bind and how those common grounds could lead to huge strides in our work – wins.

For organizers, thinking this way is inevitable, we ponder about strategies that could benefit our work which could help more people. There is nothing wrong with this but organizers should be mindful of the favors received from allies, meaning if allies show up for you, remember you will need to show up for them.

Overall, my mini-internship has been grounding. Most days I work alone, and I enjoy the autonomy. However, on any given day, I feel like a mover and shaker because after I have met with community leaders and I have communicated effectively to get them to agree to be present at the Speaking Tour. I look back upon my accomplishment and can say, job well done! This work continues to deepen my learning because while I lead this work, I am personally going through a transformation. I am evolving from a person that had limited experience in group work, and community outreach, to organizing a major speaking event. There is no doubt that I am an organizer!

New Mini-Internship

With the change in season comes the change in mini-internships. Previously, I was working with Casa Latina and some specific actions that took place over the summer. As I’m continuing my education and exploring what I would like to do with this degree, I want to use the mini-internship as a way to explore potential options and career switches.

Although I haven’t begun a new mini-internship, I have contacted Kim Schrier’s campaign to gain more information on how to help out. Dr. Schrier is running for Congress in Washington’s 8th District. I’m mostly interested in getting hands on experience, as reading about political campaigns are far different from a hands on approach. A few months ago I was contacted by a volunteer over the phone and, admittedly, was the first time I actually talked to someone about a political campaign as a voter. This volunteer respected my time, which is important, but also gave some really great points that kept Dr. Schrier on my mind until the August election.

I’m excited to learn more about this process, and get more involved in the political aspect of organizing. My hope is that this mini-internship will provide me with more clarity on possible future endeavors.

 

-Jessica Birch

Mini-Internship CASA

My journey in becoming a CASA volunteer has been long and tedious but worth the effort. Currently, I’m participating in a 30-hour intensive training course. I did not anticipate how college level and professional I was expected to be at. CASA takes what they do very seriously and it shows both in the training and the quality of trainers.

However, our regional CASA organization I get the feeling is a cut above others primarily due to the juvenile court judge who is a super supporter of advocating for children in the foster care system. Furthermore, I gather that our CASA is highly organized and skillfully managed.

Regarding the training, It’s been more of a refresher course, due to my years as a foster/adoptive parent. I bring solid experience and knowledge to the program. The education that I’m receiving at Prescott fits like a glove with my life experience. I have seen the effects of children in shock due to being removed from their homes and coming to a strangers house. I’ve stayed up all night with a child who cried for his mother. They came in all ages, gender economic and racial backgrounds, but they were all children who were fearful, apprehensive and guarded.

I attended a required open court day to observe children whose lives were in the crosshairs of their destiny. Being able to see the Judge in action along with the CASA volunteer’s input and reporting, showed me how I will work in tandem as well when I get my first CASA kid. I’m excited but a little unsure how it will all play out. My biggest challenge is writing the CASA report which includes the suggestion for continued services. I will be supervised in writing my report but it’s just going through the first one.

I am personally growing in understanding how social justice as a concept is realized as a CASA volunteer. I have amazing capacity to relate and love children but seeing it as a form of social justice is new for me, but I’m getting it. I look forward to finishing my training and helping my first CASA kid.

Mini-Internship Plan

For my mini-internship, I am working for the campaign of Beto O’Rourke, candidate for U.S.Senate.  He is running against Ted Cruz.  I have already learned a lot about political campaign organizing and hope to continue through the last two months of this election.

I began as a volunteer, working at the campaign headquarters, using a texting platform to reach potential voters, and canvassing neighborhoods.  Recently, I have begun to organize volunteers in addition to those previous jobs.  We are really building up momentum, with Plan to Win events all over Texas.  These events need people to set up chairs, order food, plan for parking, set up microphones and just generally make things run as smoothly as possible, and we use volunteers to do almost all of it.  I am learning a lot about talking to people to find out the best place to engage their strengths and passions.

As I go forward towards election day, I will analyse the campaign strategy, using Rules for Revolutionaries, Winning Your Election the Wellstone Way, and Chris Rose’s http://www.campaignstrategy.com .  I will interview and one-to-one with organizers who are staff of the campaign to see how the campaign will react as things heat up.

Beto’s campaign is all about listening to Texans and responding to their questions and concerns.  He has set the entire staff and volunteers up with the expectation of courteous and professional, always.  When attacked, he does not counter attack, but remains a cool presence, listening and then responding.  I will be very interested to see how that attitude holds up in the last several weeks against a candidate who, with his supporters (including Trump), engage in negative campaign tactics.

Lynn Soukup

Course Goals In Organizing

My course goals for this semester are simple. My plan, inhale all of the organizing knowledge such as gaining competence in this field and work toward developing a greater understanding of the social justice work. Next, take that learned knowledge and place it in my professional practice and praxis. Then determine how best to serve communities from using all that I have learned to help others master and navigate in this world.

As I see it, these course goals are not just professional goals. These are goals that I can embody personally, not just professionally. I think what better way to be a social thinker, a conscious individual on high alert at all times, attuned to the smidgen of injustice and, be on it to call it for what it is. To be this type of a person, I must not blink. Not blinking in this case means that I purposefully must hold my actions (and even lack of actions) along with others accountable. In order to be able to perform such a task requires that I be extremely sensitive to all things social, economical and political.

As I think about what I wrote, I may have bitten off more than I can chew. By writing I would inhale all of the organizing knowledge, it simply may be a goal that I can not complete. I mention this because organizing work tends to be fluid, there is constant change due to rapid social interaction, and political shifts. Although, there are a few basic aspects in the work that remain the same. And with that, there may be hope for some deep inhales after all.

On a lighter note, next, I would take this new knowledge and implement the same practice and praxis that exists in my professional life, and mirror the same actions in my personal life. Basically, what I am saying is in my professional life I work for justice. I should also be doing the same in my private life. From my lens, justice does not have an off button. The vicious cycle of injustice is always on, and so should I. By taking on this new position, albeit with caution as to avoid burnout.

Lastly, to serve others. Many may think that this goal is the easiest of the three. In my opinion, I feel this is the hardest. I say this because when we think about serving others, the reaction from those on the receiving end is that they would prefer not to be served. They want to do things for themselves. Those with this type of personal character and attitude, I applaud them.

Let me be clear, when I speak of serving others, I mean it in a broad sense, more along the lines of being intentionally participatory within the non-profit sector. In other words, finding a way to ensure that I am able to offer a reasonable amount of my time to a worthy cause that actually provides resources and benefits back into communities.

With these three goals in mind, I am certain that I am up for the challenge to impact social change, even if that social change simply begins with me.