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ALTERNATIVES
to ADOPTION
True alternatives to the current system of adoption
would include support for families in danger of losing their children
for economic reasons, individualized custody (not ownership),
fostering, child guardianship, co-parenting, an open system under
uniform fair laws guaranteeing uniform rights, true and uniform
birth records, joint public-private partnerships for family
preservation and program oversight, and removing financial incentives
for separating children from their families...
See
also our list of Parenting
Resources
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Program
Helps Pregnant Teens Complete Education
by Jeff Donaldson
The Desert Sun, July 21, 2002
THERMAL-- For Brenda Casillas, life in high school
used to consist of going to basketball games, anging out at
the mall with her friends and daydreaming about one day becoming
a veterinarian.
But these days, the 16-year-old has little time for daydreaming
-- her days begin at 6 a.m. with a warm bottle for her 10-month-old
son, a diaper change and a quick dressing before she heads
off to school.
Instead of hanging out, Casillas spends every second of her
free time cramming in homework, then she's putting her son
down for a nap before heading off to work.
While a federal report released in June reveals U.S. teen
birth rates declined for the 10th straight year in 2001, birth
rates among teens in California remain higher than the national
average.
In particular, officials are concerned by an alarmingly high
number of Hispanic teens like Casillas who are having babies
in lieu of finishing high school and pursuing a career.
"It's a culture thing," said Yadira Kashak, a teacher with
the Cal-Safe Program, which helps students in the eastern
Coachella Valley finish their education during and after their
pregnancies.
Kashak said more than 60 percent of the students enrolled
in Cal-Safe this year were Hispanic, and she attributes the
high birth rates to religious and cultural differences of
many of the girls.
"In the Hispanic culture, abortion is not something that's
readily available, and the girls see it as a rite of passage
to have a child," Kashak said. "It's as if their status in
their family is elevated once they've started a family of
their own."
In the federal report, the teen birth rate nationwide has
fallen to 45.9 percent, dropping almost 26 percent since 1990.
Although teen birth rates for girls age 15-19 in Riverside
County have fallen 27 percent since 1990, the decline has
been much smaller for Hispanics and blacks than for whites.
Statistics show birth rates have declined 59 percent for white
teen moms from 1990-99, 14 percent for Hispanics and 32 percent
for black teens.
The high numbers of teen births have prompted officials to
turn their focus to teaching sex and family education to a
whole new audience -- mainly young girls' male partners and
their families.
Kashak
said Cal-Safe has started enrolling teen fathers in the program
in an effort to teach better parenting skills, while also
encouraging them to finish their education. They also reach
out to the girls' families through workshops at area schools
and home visits.
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Kashak said they try to teach parents -- many who come from
several generations of women who started having babies early
-- that an education can be more effective in escaping poverty.
"A lot of the parents have come from backgrounds where, if you're
poor, you have children," Kashak said. "We want to educate them
that just because you can't pay for tennis lessons doesn't mean
your child starts having sex at 14."
In Coachella Valley Unified, school officials have even started
offering students programs that teach them about some of the
alternatives to having children at a young age.
Program Coordinator Lynn Lightcap said in addition to aggressive
sex education, self-esteem and HIV/AIDS training, the district
has started taking students on field trips to universities,
museums and other places where they can learn about education
and careers.
"A lot of students feel like they don't have choices," Lightcap
said. "We're not just about preventing teen pregnancy, we want
to show them that they have different opportunities that warrant
putting off starting a family."
Jennifer Larson, 17, learned early the drawbacks of having babies
as a teen-ager. Larson got pregnant when she was 15 and was
forced to miss an entire semester of school because of illness.
But despite having to care for her child and work a full-time
job, Larson eventually enrolled at Mt. San Jacinto Continuation
School in Cathedral City and went on to graduate this year as
the school's valedictorian.
"A lot of teens feel like they need to have a baby to fill a
void -- to love the baby in a way that they weren't loved --
but that's a lack of real education," Larson said. "I haven't
regretted it because I had a lot of support from my family.
It's a lot harder for other girls."
Like Larson, Casillas is looking forward to finishing school
through Cal-Safe, and she still hopes to attend college to become
a veterinarian.
But Casillas admits she now wishes she had waited to have children.
And unlike many teen girls, she realizes how fortunate she is
that her boyfriend and family have stood behind her.
"Girls need to know the truth -- that having a baby doesn't
give you some kind of perfect life," Casillas said. "If you're
responsible enough to have sex, you have to be responsible enough
to know the consequences."
Jeff Donaldson is a writer for The Desert Sun. He can be reached
at 778-4652 or by e-mail at jeff.donaldson@thedesertsun.com
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is
an
alternative to permanently removing a child from parents. One
or both biological parents share custody of their child with
a relative or court appointed guardian. The benefit to the child
and his parents is an extended "family" to share the
responsibility and one or two homes with which the child is
familiar rather than frequent moves f rom one foster home to
another and no real family.
is
a successful, community-based family preservation program
headquartered in Washington state and designed to assist families
at risk of losing their children to foster care. By helping
families in trouble, the program seeks to avoid removing children
from the home. Washington estimated it saved $17-million dollars
in its first few years since the program began in l974. The
comparisons:
— Homebuilders, 5 weeks $2,600
— Foster care, 9 months $3,607
— Group Care, 12 months $19,465
— Correction all institutions, 3 months $14,437
— Acute Psychiatric Hospital, just 1 month $10,000
— Residential Treatment, 12 months $67,525
(Source: National Governor's Association, chart in Family
Values newsletter.)
A
pioneering website, www.Co-abode.com, offers a unique "matchmaking"
service to provide single moms the opportunity to house share,
while pooling resources and finances with another single mom
of their choosing.
Founder
of Co-abode.com, Carmel Sullivan, is a single mom who knows
the issues single mothers face firsthand. She describes the
website as a source of real help for single moms where they
need it the most - social support and better living arrangements
for their children. "If the 'It takes a village' notion
has any credence - as I firmly believe it does - then connecting
single moms is the way to make it work," says Sullivan.
Co-abode.com
also offers single moms a way to stay in the family home by
sharing its expense with another single-mom family. Moms without
a home can find an appropriate housemate through the service,
enabling them to afford a larger and more comfortable home
together.
Teen
Parent Services is offered to 350 young mothers by BBF Family
Services,
also known as Building Brighter Futures, a 37-year old non-profit
organization. In order to continue receiving public assistance,
the young mothers must stay in the program until they obtain
their high school diploma or GED. They get counseling and help
with transportation, child care and discuss issues such as parenting
skills, birth control, employment, with volunteers according
to their expertise. The focus on the program is to help the
young women become self-sufficient.
The
New York Times, July 15, 1990, Section 12, "Teenagers Need
Effective Parents To Win Drug Battle," by Brien O'Callahan:
...
We must reverse our spending priorities so that 80% of our
'drug war' monies is taken away from interdiction, enforcement
and rehabilitation and put into parent education and assistance.
Parental assistance programs like Homebuilders or family preservation
and parent-school collaboration programs must be given more
funds. The focus must be on talking to parents, not just children.
Better parents are a better weapon in the "war against
drugs."
Senator Patrick Moynihan, when arguing against a $1-billion
dollar appropriation for family preservation and support, said
'The ability of social workers to intervene with the goal of
family preservation has never been proven."
is
described in "Boot Camp For Moms," Los Angeles Times
(May 27, 1993, E-1), brainchild of Asenath Andrews, Principal
of Catherine Ferguson Academy, which teaches students living
skills needed to make it on their own. They camped in Yellowstone
National Park and helped build a day care center in Washington,
DC, funded with both public school money and a grant from the
state of Michigan.
The Women's Alternative Center (WAC)
"an
alternative to foster care, was created to prevent the need
to separate mothers and children. In 1887, the Milford Industrial
Home, also known as the Nebraska Maternity Home, was a reformatory
and charitable institution for unwed mothers who had financial
problems and could not arrange their own care. Each of the
"inmates" was taught homemaking and nursing skills
and obtained a high school diploma. Those who could go on
to earn a living and pay the monthly upkeep for themselves
and their children were permitted to stay. Those who did not
pay within 6 months had to give up their babies for adoption,
which need not be the price to pay today. An innovative program,
sponsored by Women's Alternatives Inc. in Delaware County,
Pennsylvania, today it serves only female heads of households
and their children by providing educational and clinical services
to women in a crisis situation through 3 to 6 month comprehensive
residential and non-residential programs for mothers and children
with problems. By providing temporary housing, a supportive
environment, relevant skills and necessary training for female
heads of household, WAC enabled families to become financially
and emotionally independent and effectively manage and direct
themselves and their children within their communities and
the mainstream of American society. WAC was initially headquartered
in a 3-story home in rural Chester Heights, offering families
a contrast and easy access to urban areas. WAC was funded
as a demonstration project on a grant from the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its operation was maintained
through corporate, foundation and community support. The Center's
residential families lived in a safe and supportive environment.
WAC also helped prevent child abuse and neglect and made the
community more aware of the needs of the female headed household.
which
the media called "the most innovative program for homeless
mothers and children in the nation," is similar to WAC
but extends post-program services including mentoring. Headquartered
in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, the Michigan program was launched
with 1,000 homeless applicants.
is
described in "Life Off The Streets," TIME (November
16, 1998, p. 8), by Wendy Cole: "At Genesis House, society's
'throwaway women' get a fresh chance... Opened in 1983 (on Chicago's
South Side) by a British-born feminist theologian named Edwina
Gately, Genesis House is just one of a handful of U.S. recovery
centers for prostitutes (many of whom are raising children).
As social services and law enforcement agencies have learned
about its success rate and unusual approach in dealing with
seemingly intractable clients, it has become a model for similar
programs from Florida to Thailand. Nonetheless ... Genesis House
is in financial jeopardy from the loss of a half million dollars
in federal funds and had to find volunteers to replace about
half of its 25 paid staff members. About 70% of enrollees complete
the program and 80% of the graduates don't relapse."
Open
Arms
co-sponsored
by a Savannah, Georgia hospital and Lutheran Ministries, fills
the gap left by parents without grandparent support, HMO'S,
Social Services and busy nurses who don't have the time to simply
cuddle and nurture an infant. "Open Arms" takes care
of "border babies"--infants who are born seriously
premature or who have been abused or abandoned or who have parents
who cannot care for them. The infants stay in a three-bedroom
bungalow operated by Open Arms until the courts place them in
foster care, put them up for adoption, or return them to their
parents who might otherwise permanently lose their babies from
temporary situations. Communities need to promote hospital volunteerism
through churches, libraries, retired citizens groups, local
organizations.
Child Guardianship
In one version of "subsidized guardianship," the court appoints
co-guardians to act on behalf of a child when the parents cannot
do so. In the
Vera Institute on Justice Report on Guardianship, author Maerl
Schwartz envisions a situation where co-guardians work as family
mentors and partners during times of crisis. The co-guardians
may be family friends or relatives. The co-guardian is
like a caseworker in a family preservation project but with
access to the family that no outsider can hope to achieve within
time limits imposed on those efforts. Schwartz' study
names 10 states that, as of 1995, operated subsidized guardianship
programs at some level. Feedback from the states indicated
varying degrees of success and challenge.
Three years into the Massachusetts and New York "Guardianship
Demonstration Project," researchers reported that the majority
of children were thriving with their guardians. An Illinois
program administrator's efforts to transfer about 2,000 children
from kinship care to guardianship were slowed by a lack of alternative
funding to cover the cost of federal medical insurance.
Like other child welfare plans, subsidized guardianship must
be monitored. It is not the panacea for every situation
but it is an option that could help achieve permanence for kids
without permanently severing their kinship ties and basic human
rights as adoption does. (Source: New York
City Comptroller, Office of Policy Management, A Model For Subsidized
Guardianship, by Matthew Grosser, Diane Pausell and Regina
Poreda, NY May 1995; Merrill Schwartz, "Re-inventing Guardianship:
Subsidized Guardianship, Co-Guardians and Child Welfare, Institute
of Justice Inc., June 1993).
Reprinted With Permission from AbolishAdoption.com.
(from Chapters 8 & 9 of Chosen
Children, by Lori Carangelo) © 2001, 2002
and forward by Lori Carangelo. All Rights Reserved
E-mail: accesspress@yahoo.com.
PO Box 401, Palm Desert, CA 92261 USA
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