[Researcher]

Hello everyone,

I am a researcher developing a website intended to foster collaborative thinking and action plans. We have not yet tested our site on a large group, but would like to make a site to address the concerns of foster parents.

For the site, I am identifying major controversial issues and difficult situations relating to the foster system and children in foster care.

So far, these are some issues I have come up with-


? Black Americans in Foster Care
? Cost of Adoption
? Bio Family Reunification
? Foster Parents and Privacy Rights
? HIV positive Foster Children
? Interfaith Adoption
? Kinship Care
? Medicating Foster Children
? Overseas adoption
? Prejudice against Adoptive Families
? Primal Wound Theory
? Same Sex Foster Parents
? Sibling Adoption
? Special Needs Children
? The war on drugs and foster children

These are some relevant organizations and people I have listed-

? American Public Human Services
Association
? Fostering Results
? Jim Casey Youth Opportunties Initiative
? National Adoption Center
? National Association of Council for Children
? National Association of Public Child Welfare
Administrators
? National Council of Juvenile and Family
Court Judges
? Orphan Foundation of America
? State Child Protective Service Agencies
? State Department of Children
? The Free Child Project
? US Health and Human Services Department
? US Senate Committee on Children and
Families Hearing on Child Protection


Ideally, our website is designed so that the public can voice their opinions while some of the organizations are notified about those discussions.

I would love your help on this project. I see on another thread on this page that people involved in the foster system want their concerns heard this election year. We hope that our site can be a way for people to get their concerns heard.

If you can tell me some major issues of concern in the foster system and let me know what you consider organizations with major influence relating to foster care, that would be great.

Also, if you have personal involvement with such organizations, I would love to work with you.

Thanks!!

[bethy724]

I am a little confused by the request. I have been a foster parent for 4 years & haven't seen any HUGE issues in the foster care system. Are you a foster parent? Is your info coming from fp's (& that's why your here) or the media?

I guess I'm asking your mission/goal by setting up a web sight. The way to be heard is to VOTE, Vote bad judges OUT, vote for a president that values children ect... I know the State of TX we have a great web sight w/ resource, statistic info. shouldn't people refer to their state websights for info or have you thought about working with what is already set up? Are you working with all states & foster care as a whole? (each state has it's own family courts & laws)

I personally think there are plenty of laws out there to protect children, plenty of layers of people in the system (sw for the child, sw for the home, lawyer for the child, in some cases an additional child advocate for the child) & not sure if yet another web sight will fix anything. It's when the layers & layers of people fail to do their job & if the child is killed that it makes the paper. I would personally love to see what judges are deciding what, what judges refuse to follow the laws (personal religious resons to not place w/ a single person or same sex couple) but there are confidentiality laws in the family courts so I get my info 2nd hand (from cw's, child advocates ect) I would love to know how many beaten children are in the hospital today & nobody has been charged w/ their injuries (again confidential info there)

Good luck w/ your mission - I hope it is successful - I'm just not quite sure I get what it is.

[az sun]

Personally I think some of the "issues" you highlight are more "provoking" or antagonistic to some populations such as:

Black Americans in Foster Care
HIV positive Foster Children
Interfaith Adoption
Medicating Foster Children
Same Sex Foster Parents
.
I am curious how do you perceive these issues and what is your evidence or assumption? What real research have YOU done into the problems and deficiencies into the system that you included these?

I guess I wonder how you think the above issues really promote or deliever "difficult situations relating to the foster system and children in foster care" as you put it?

I question your motives

[tvs4]

Who are you researching for?