Honoring Our City's Foster Parents May is Foster Parent Recognition Month, a wonderful opportunity to express our appreciation to the unsung heroes of the child welfare system. Earlier this month at City Hall, Deputy Mayor Anthony Coles and Administration for Children's Services (ACS) Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta honored 23 outstanding foster parents in appreciation of their commitment and service to New York City's children. The ceremony was just a small token of our appreciation for the priceless gift that foster parents give. Thousands of New Yorkers open their hearts and their homes to children who cannot live safely at home due to abuse, neglect, or abandonment. In addition to providing a safe haven, foster parents provide love and guidance that truly cannot be measured. For all they do, we honor these caring and selfless individuals during Foster Parent Recognition Month each May. Commissioner Scoppetta himself was honored last month by the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children for his dedication to protecting the well-being of our city's children. Under his direction, ACS has reduced the foster care population from nearly 42,000 at the agency's start in 1996, to just over 34,000 as of January. Adoptions have reached a record high of 11,657 for the last three years combined. In looking for ways to improve the system, ACS researchers discovered two important facts: When it was necessary for a child to be placed in foster care, only 12 percent were placed in their own community district. That meant that the trauma of victimized children was multiplied many times over when they were placed with foster families far from their homes, friends, and schools. At the same time, more than 75 percent of the children placed in foster care eventually return home or to relatives. In keeping with these facts, ACS has been fundamentally transforming the child welfare system to create a neighborhood-based, community-oriented service system. Embraced by cities across the nation, this system is the most innovative and common-sense approach to child welfare services. It simply means that families and children can get the help they need close to home. To create neighborhood-based services, ACS is working to build three key partnerships. The first is with the nonprofit social services agencies that provide child welfare services. Last year, ACS contracted with agencies to provide services in specific communities. The second partnership critical to neighborhood-based services is between these agencies. Together, they can provide a network of services in each community to help prevent and detect abuse and neglect; provide preventive services that address both the individual needs of the child as well as those of the family members; and coordinate the services that a family may need, including medical, mental health, and substance abuse treatment. The third partnership ACS seeks to build through neighborhood-based services is with every New Yorker. One agency alone cannot prevent child abuse and neglect - the community's involvement is essential. We can all help stop child abuse and neglect in our neighborhoods by knowing the signs and reporting suspected cases. In addition, New Yorkers are encouraged to consider becoming foster parents. Foster parents are essential partners to the child welfare system. ACS relies on available foster parents in each neighborhood to make the best possible placement for a child - one that is near the child's parents, friends and school. While the number of children entering foster care is declining, the City still faces a critical need for foster parents who are able to provide safe, stable, temporary homes for children in foster care. If you are interested in becoming a foster parent, call the ACS Parent Recruitment Hotline at (212) 676-WISH (9474). |
