There are over 100,000 youth in foster care over the age of 16. These are some of the loneliest children in our society, as they wait for someone who will make a lifelong commitment to love and support them. On average, these youth have spent 4 or more years in foster care, and for some their entire lives. These youth few options for getting out of the foster care system.
This is also the population that Missouri Alliance for Children and Families is committed to serving. Our experiences with the struggles that these youth face, charged us with the mission to find an answer to “where do I come from and who loves me”?
In searching for these answers we were led to the FAMILY FINDING philosophy and set of practices that creates options for these youth.
The core beliefs of this philosophy are:
· every child has a family
· loneliness is the primary issue facing children in Foster Care
· meaningful connections to family help a child develop a sense of belonging
· reconnection with family is crucial in healing the trauma that children experience in being separated from their family
In the process of connecting or reconnecting youth with their families case managers use an extensive search and discovery process to identify and then engage family members. If no information can be located in talking with the youth or mining the case file, Internet Searches are used to identify and locate family. Taking this information a new focus is put on finding family members, assessing the situation, gathering information and working to safely reconnect these families, if appropriate.
Missouri Alliance for Children and Families has been putting this philosophy and associated steps into practice with the youth it serves. Among the many benefits, one has been a real sense of healing for both the youth and the families. We are also seeing that when youth can answer some of the questions about their families, stability and success improve.
Trainings and presentations on the FAMILY FINDING philosophy and practice are available. We are committed to expanding the knowledge and familiarity of Family Finding to those that serve all ages of children in any capacity.