Arizona State University recently studied the negative effects that living in foster care have on foster children and how adopting foster kids in Arizona can completely change a child’s life. Children in foster care offered their input on what is essential for children when living in foster care. One foster child shared:
“I guess I just don’t know where I’ll be when I turn 18 though or what I need to go do. I’m not like the other kids in school who know what they’re doing. I need more help.”
There is a lot to be learned about what foster children need. Listening to children in foster care sheds light on how foster care negatively impacts them. Children are in foster care through no fault of their own. Foster children are removed from their biological homes as a result of abuse and/or neglect that endangers their well-being. Innocent, abused children enter foster care with significant trauma. Their social, emotional, and physical well-being are fragile. Adoptive families are urgently needed to support and love these children, to give them the stability and future that they need by adopting foster kids in Arizona or anywhere in the United States.
Adopting Arizona Foster Kids in Arizona Provides the Support and Stability Youths Need
Children in foster care long to be normal, to be like other children. Here is a comment about the need for normalcy:
“Having something simple like the food I like to eat at home would go a long way. Not every kid likes the same stuff… It would be nice if I could have friends over to the house like other kids or go to the mall. I can’t even have a cell phone.”
Youth in foster care are acutely aware that they are “different”. They don’t have the same support, privileges, or opportunities that most teenagers enjoy. Teenage foster children can typically keep all of their worldly possessions in one suitcase and are often afraid that their meager belongings will be stolen by other foster children. They give up on becoming attached to caregivers, as they move an average of 2-3 times per year. The same is true of friends, as they often are forced to change schools, making academic success extremely difficult.
One foster child expressed the need for positive, loving support this way:
“I know I’m doing well when adults tell me I’m doing good. If I do something as simple as my chore, I need to hear, like, ’good job’ or when I bring my grades home, and I have good grades, ’good job.’”
It’s not just teenagers that need forever families, but many teenagers “age out” of the foster care system without ever being adopted. They enter adulthood without the tools they need to succeed as adults. These vulnerable teenagers just want to be unconditionally loved and have the opportunity to succeed. The need is urgent. Please consider adopting foster kids in Arizona or from any other state in the US.
Contrary to what many people believe, you do not have to be a licensed foster care provider before adopting Arizona foster kids or foster children from other states. You must reside in Arizona to adopt foster children through Building Arizona Families. We are a licensed Arizona adoption agency that can help you adopt foster children from around the United States.
To adopt a foster child you do need to successfully complete a home study. Once you meet the general adoption requirements (find out more HERE) and a home study is successfully completed, you are eligible to adopt a foster child. Learn more about home study costs and process HERE.
The Forever Families U.S. Adoption Program at Building Arizona Families
The Forever Families U.S. Adoption Program is a life-changing program at Building Arizona Families that connects adoptive families to foster kids in Arizona and from around the U.S. Through a direct adoption placement, prospective adoptive families become able to adopt without becoming licensed to foster children first. Building Arizona Families believes in transparency. Please visit our website to download the foster child adoption info kit HERE.
Building Arizona Families Has Been Helping Families Since 2004
Building Arizona Families would be honored to walk with you on your journey to adopt foster kids in Arizona and from around the U.S. As a non-profit, licensed Arizona adoption agency, we have been helping families adopt precious foster children since 2004.
Loving, forever families are urgently needed. Contact us so that you can help a foster child’s adoption dreams come true! Reach out to Ixcel Baca, Program Manager for the Forever Families foster child adoption program at Building Arizona Families by phone at 623-696-9537 or by e-mail at [email protected].
Building Arizona Families also offers free adoption information seminars in Phoenix, as well as online. Be sure to reach out to Ixcel for seminar dates and times. Download our foster child adoption info kit HERE.
Source –
https://childwellbeing.asu.edu/youthwellbeing