HISTORY

The idea for Permanent Family Resource Center was born in January 2000 by three families who had adopted eight (going on twelve) children out of the child welfare system.  The founding mothers of Permanent Family Resource Center observed children being moved from foster home to foster home until they became unattached and unreachable.  They found that children who had been moved a number of times were reluctant to form trusting relationships with their caregivers, and with good reason!

 Historically, plans for children in the foster care system were sequential; for example, shelter care, emergency foster care, search for relatives, regular foster care, visitation, attempts to reunify, file for termination of parental rights, trial, appeal, ruling stands, evaluations, search again for relatives, search for adoptive family, visits with adoptive family, trial period with adoptive family and finalization.  It has been reported that on average a child experiences three moves and it is not uncommon for a child to be moved ten times within the foster care system.  Child psychologists recognize that each change is devastating to a child and contributes to an inability form trusting and lasting relationships.

A child's journey of removal from  parental care to permanency, which may include adoption, is filled with  barriers.  Barriers include high case loads (low resources) for child protection workers, delays in locating relatives, delays in locating foster families, geographical barriers and delays in the judicial system.

The founders know many foster families  adopt the children in their care.  Some communities report that as many as 80% to 90% of all adopters of older children are foster parents. The founders also observed foster families remaining in contact with their foster children long after the children have returned to their families of origin.  Foster parents have been doing this work a long time.  The founders thought it would be beneficial to recognize this permanent place foster families have in the lives of children.  What if we name it, recruit for it and train and support families specifically for long term commitment to children?  What if we expect from the beginning that foster parents remain involved in their child's life forever, regardless of whether or not they adopt them?

Permanent Family Resource Center believes that too many children live in legal limbo, not able to be adopted nor safely returned home.  Children who do not live with their legally responsible guardian/parent, are at risk for being moved from that setting.  Every move, is detrimental, often devastating to a child.  With each move, relationships are severed and a trusting piece of that child dies.  Children soon learn that the world is a dangerous place to live and begin taking measures to protect themselves, measures such as avoiding close relatioinships to antisocial behavior, in order to gain control over their environment. Child development specialists agree that the ability to form lasting bonds is severly reduced if a child undergoes too many separations or lingers on impermanence too long.

These families, and others, came together to form an adoption and foster care agency, Permanent Family Resource Center.   The emphasis of this agency is to impact children who are in or at risk of falling into the child welfare system.  Sometimes these children are called  "waiting children" because they wait in the system for permanence.  Permanent Family Resource Center  operates under a model referred to in child welfare circles as Concurrent Planning which means working toward reunification of the child with their family of origin while, at the same time, establishing an alternative permanent plan which may include adoption. Concurrent rather than sequential planning efforts move children quickly from the uncertainty of foster care to the security of a permanent family.