The need for Native American and Alaska Native foster parents is great. Finding safe and nurturing homes for Native children who need them is a critical element for a successful future. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that at any given time around 400,000 children are living in foster care. What makes a good foster parent? Do foster parents need special skills to provide good care for the children they take in?
Guests:
Alecia McConnell (Confederated tribes of the Umatilla) -Foster youth advocate
Kendra Lowden (Potawatomi and Osage) – Foster Care Resource manager for the Chickasaw Nation Child Welfare services
Velma Armijo (Jemez Pueblo) – Foster parent
Tiffany Sewell – Indian Child Welfare Act Administrator for Colorado department of Human Services
Break Music: Sisters (song) Tribe Called Red (artist) Nation II Nation (album)
I wanted to call in but to busy, but one of the issues I wanted to bring up in native American foster parenting is the Tribal Enrollment. I have a little one that I had recently adopted. And we have not been able to get him enrolled. Our tribe won’t enroll him because neither biological parent is from here. And they are both enrolled in different tribes. So its like enrollment wants me to track down these people to have them sign a paternity, then I can enroll my adopted child in either tribe. I don’t feel like tracking down these people that didn’t want this child. I believe there should have been something set up to help these Foster Kids or the ones that get adopted. If the tribes are worried about who is more or less indian, I don’t think that should be the case if the Adoptive parents are native, and the biologicals.
On a different note, it is hard being a foster parent. So much goes into it, sometimes you never know what that child has been through when they come to your home. My husband and I are always trying to help when we can, so far we have adopted 3 kids. I just feel so bad for these little ones to the teenagers, that they don’t know the comfort of stable love. We are human, its is hard not to get attached or grow feelings. If you keep them for awhile its like they are part of your home.