Siblings reconnect after spending stretch apart
MAINTAINING TIES PRODUCED BY JANE CAFFREY SIBLINGS RECONNECT AFTER SPENDING STRETCH APART For twelve years, 21-year-old Brady Bennett waited for a birthday. It arrived on September 24, 2009, when his sister Natasha turned 18. Yet Brady did not celebrate with his little sister; he has not seen her for over a decade, when they were […]
Black, White, Brown
PRODUCED BY GP INGERSOLL IDENTITY A CHALLENGE IN TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION Austin Kyle recently took a trip to South Carolina with his family to one of the most important sites in early Civil War history. Not Fort Sumter, but rather, The Penn Center; the location of the first school for freed slaves. For Kyle’s kids, 10-year-old […]
Single dads step up
PRODUCED BY CYNTHIA GHAZALI SINGLE DADS STEP UP When nuclear families break, families of a new kind form. “It’s nice to have a mommy and daddy,” William Vega, a single dad, said to his son Jaiden. “But do you really need a mommy and daddy? No, as long as you have somebody there to love […]
New Legislation
PRODUCED BY CYNTHIA MEDINA NEW LEGISLATION TO AID KINSHIP FOSTER PARENTS Parents of kinship foster care children say they feel devalued as foster parents to the child in their care, stemming from the fewer benefits they receive and lack of programs to turn to in order to assist in the child’s upbringing when compared to […]
Informal kinship grandmothers need help
PRODUCED BY JULIA DORAN INFORMAL KINSHIP GRANDMOTHERS NEED HELP On April 1st, 2011 a bill, touted by some as a rare, positive piece of foster care legislation will come into effect. Governor Paterson’s Kinship Guardianship Assistance Bill will provide kinship guardians — the guardians of family friends and relatives’ children — with subsidies comparable to […]
Demand for foster parents rising
PRODUCED BY TENZIN NYIMA DEMAND FOR FOSTER PARENTS RISING Since five of her seven children have already left home to be on their own, Rosmond Roll decided to combat the solitude and become a foster parent. Her days now are occupied with shuttles between different foster care training centers where she takes classes so as […]
Family-to-Family Strategy
PRODUCED BY HAYA FATIMA IQBAL FAMILY-TO-FAMILY STRATEGY A SUCCESS FOR KIDS Although the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) and foster care agencies have been in contract for over a decade to ensure that the Family-to-Family strategy is implemented, New York state’s foster care system is still waiting for this to happen. In 1992, the Annie […]
Mothers battle system and self
PRODUCED BY LORETTA VAN DER HORST Difficult Custody Battles For The Mentally Il For the the full article on this author’s personal blog Click Here NEW YORK – Erica Orr, 25, lives in the Bronx with her husband Michael and her two children Emma, 3, and Michel, 1. Though they seem like an ordinary family, behind […]