CONNECTIUT
Foster care as a calling
The most effective foster parents are people who see the care as “a calling,” according to Sixto Cancel.
A recent Bridge Academy graduate, Cancel, 19 has been in foster homes since he was 11 months old. For the past few years, he has worked to revise local and state policies to improve foster care for city children.
The most important change needed is for more families to open their homes to foster kids, according to local child welfare officials.
Anyone interested in becoming a foster parent must go through a 30-hour training session. They must be licensed, over age 21, and free of a criminal background.
The residence where a foster parent provides care must be safe and have smoke detectors and fire alarms. Any firearms in the home must be safely locked up.
Once a family is licensed, inspectors visit the home monthly to ensure that safety requirements are maintained, said BethAnn Jackson, Connecticut youth opportunity strategy specialist at FSW.
As part of her job, Jackson works with foster care youth involved in the Bridgeport Youth Advisory Board and other programs offered by FSW.
Jackson and her husband are licensed as foster parents with Casey Family Services’ respite care program.
“It averages out to be about once a month that we are asked to act as a substitute foster family,” Jackson said.
Those providing respite care may request certain days — such as weekends — and specific age groups. For example, Jackson’s family houses teenagers only.
Foster kids need respite care for a variety of reasons.
“One couple was going on a vacation by themselves, and another couple was going away to a conference for foster families,” Jackson said. “There was also a situation where the parents had to go on a business trip.”
Sometimes the kids need a respite from their foster family, and the family may need a break from the kids. “Another need for respite is for college students who are home on school breaks,” she said.
Respite care is used when children are removed from their biological family and there isn’t time to find them a permanent foster family.
The foster kids are usually flexible about what they do during the weekend, Jackson said. In the past, she’s taken one of her foster kids to a carnival when they said that they had never been to one before.
On another occasion, Jackson spent the weekend cooking with a young girl who aspired to be a chef.
“She wasn’t allowed to cook at her foster home, so we went grocery shopping and spent the whole day and a half cooking,” Jackson said. “I want to give them the opportunity to do things that they don’t normally get to do.”
When they leave, Jackson often tells the young people that they can stay in touch by calling or e-mailing.
Jackson said her mother-in-law, Diane Zello of West Haven, recruits foster care families and has cared for 27 foster children and adopted four.
Karen Kovacs Dydzuhn
9 August 2011
