Kirksville:
A foster family with a long-term foster placement came to FosterAdopt Connect concerned about the children in their home being sent to live with unknown relatives who posed a safety risk, particularly to one child with developmental delays and special needs.
After multiple meetings with Missouri Children’s Division regarding the safety concerns, a different, more suitable relative placement was chosen for the children. To this day, the children still enjoy time with their former foster family even though they are now living with relatives. They still get to have an important family connection, in an environment that is healing rather than damaging.
Mountain Grove:
Twin girls came to live with a foster family a little over a year ago. Children’s Division was not involved, so this family was unable to receive a monthly stipend to help take care of the children. This created a financial hardship for the family to raise the girls on a fixed income. The foster family shared that the biological mother was struggling with several challenges in her life that made it unsafe for the girls to live with her. They and the children were scared that their mother would come and take the children and that they would be in danger.
Our Family Advocate referred the family to Legal Services of Southern Missouri and they were accepted as a client. The advocate was able to educate the family on the process of Legal Guardianship and attend her family’s attorney appointment with her. Legal Guardianship has now been filed with the court. This family was also able to save over $4,000 in attorney fees through our legal services referral.
Joplin:
FosterAdopt Connect received a call from a kinship foster parent in complete desperation and defeat. She was having major conflicts with the case management team and the were unable to agree on what was best for the children in their home. Our Advocate was able to set up a mediation meeting with the family and the circuit manager of the county at FosterAdopt Connect’s Joplin office and successfully help facilitate communication. From there, we were able to get the subsidy back up and running, as the time had run out for the kinship home to be licensed due to the part of the process taking longer.
Our Advocate was also able to track down who was going to be holding the ICPC (an agreement that governs the placement of children from one state into another state) as well as the person responsible to license their home. Our team then received this message from the kinship foster parent after connecting her with the correct agency:
“Thank you so much! She [the child] is coming Thursday. I truly don’t believe I would be this far if it wasn’t for you helping me. I was feeling completely defeated by the process. Seriously, thank you!”
If you are a foster parent who feels stuck, has questions about the complexities of the child welfare system, or wants to meet other foster parents who have been exactly where you are, visit our Advocacy page and fill out the self-referral form. We also have several online classes available to connect you with peers within the foster care community featured on the page. You aren’t in this alone, and we would love to help!
