As summer break rolls to a close, students all over the country are gearing up for a new school year. But for youth in foster care, this can be an incredibly different experience. Some youth are going back to their same school for the first time living in a different home. Others have had to switch to a different school, maybe in a new town, where they know no one and may be afraid to be identified as someone in foster care. We asked Angie McKim, who has two school-aged youth in foster care, to give us four tips for foster parents.
At Cornerstones of Care, we are all about trauma-informed care. Top to bottom, our organization uses trauma-informed principles in the way we care for those we serve and the way we interact with each other. But how do these concepts translate outside of work? We asked our training team members to share some of the ways the trauma-informed concepts they teach every day have worked their way into their personal relationships and home lives.
The most effective intervention we can provide children healing from trauma is strong, enduring relationships with caring adults. When foster parents and birth parents partner in the child's best interest, the child hears, "You're lovable; you matter and we care." The desired outcome is reunification and a lasting friendship between families.
In the United States approximately two-thirds of children in foster care have a sibling also in care. When siblings are removed from their home and placed in foster care we make every attempt to keep them together. We understand sibling relationships help children achieve developmental milestones as well as provide emotional support, companionship and comfort in times of change. Separating siblings compounds the grief they feel over separation from their parents and the transition to a new home.
We are in full swing for our upcoming ‘Thyme for Kids’ plant sale, a fundraiser for our horticultural therapy and Build Trybe program. The students enrolled in my class help manage a commercial greenhouse, learn to nurture living things, contribute to a team project, and gain a basic understanding of plant science. We have been growing annuals, perennials, herbs, houseplants, and vegetable transplants to sell to the community. "What makes horticulture therapeutic?” I am asked this question often. I believe it varies from individual to individual.
