At-Risk Children and Youth:Problem, Action Plan and Resources

THE PROBLEM TO BE FACED

Due to parental abuse or neglect children can be taken from their homes and placed in foster care.  Older children can be at risk of being drawn into gangs, of becoming addicted to drugs or alcohol, of being drawn into violent or predatory crime, of getting pregnant or causing pregnancy.  Their being at risk arises most often from their situations at home.

In February of 2009 there were 3,629 children who had been placed in foster care in Los Angeles County’s Service Planning Area 8 by the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS).  DCFS has two offices in SPA 8: the Torrance office which serves El Segundo, Inglewood, Hawthorne, Gardena, and Harbor City and cities generally to the west and south of them and the Lakewood office which serves Long Beach, Carson, Wilmington, San Pedro, and Catalina Island.  The Torrance office had charge of 1,443 children in February and receives an average of 60 new children per month for which it must find foster homes.  The Lakewood office had 2,186 children in February and receives an average of 50 new children per month.  Each month some children are returned to the homes of their parents or other relatives or are otherwise discharged, so the totals in foster care tend to remain fairly constant.

ACTION PLAN

The Social Concerns Committee plans to help increase awareness of and support for at-risk children and youth.  This work will involve (1) recruitment of foster and adoptive parents and mentors for foster children and children who have an incarcerated parent, (2) disseminating information about services for foster children, and (3) working with congregations and neighborhoods to provide alternatives to gangs, to reduce racism and to create respect for the dignity of every human being.  The committee will form three teams, one focusing on foster care, another on gangs and the third on creating respect across racial and cultural lines.

We plan is to continue our support of the faith-based groups of the Torrance and Lakewood offices of DCFS and take whatever collateral actions seem appropriate.

The Torrance DCFS office has created a Faith-Based Committee which part of its South Bay Community Partnership.  The purpose of this committee is to address how congregations and faith-based organizations can assist in supporting the most vulnerable children in our community – those that have experienced abuse/neglect and living in foster care as well as those who are at risk of entering the foster care system.  The goals of this committee are listed as follows:

• » To create awareness of the needs of foster children and their caregivers within the South Bay;
• » To create partnerships with congregations and faith-based organizations in order to improve child abuse prevention efforts and assure that the children who do enter foster care are able to obtain permanency;
• » To link needy families to the resources provided by congregations and faith-based organizations in order to: help reduce the number of families that enter the child welfare system, reduce recidivism rates, and to increase the number of children that are reunified with their families;
• » Finding, supporting, and maintaining foster/adoptive homes that are located in communities in which children live so that when children must be removed from their home for safety reasons, they are able to remain in their own neighborhoods;
• » To provide support and services to foster youth and their caregivers;
• » To find mentors for foster youth who do not have any permanent connections to a caring adult.

The Lakewood office has also been involved in outreach to religious congregations and faith-based organizations for purposes similar to those listed above.   

The committee will also undertake to help congregations and neighborhoods to create positive relationships between parents and children, provide alternatives to gangs, combat racism, and engender respect for persons of other racial, ethnic or cultural groups

LIST OF RESOURCES  

FOSTER CARE

Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services,
http://dcfs.co.la.ca.us

Child Welfare numbers, trends and other information provided by the Children Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/foster.cfm 

Education of Children in Foster Care – a report prepared for the National Conference of State Legislatures: www.ncsl.org/programs/cyf/CPIeducate.htm

Annie E. Casey Foundation, a private charitable organization dedicated to helping build better futures for disadvantaged children in the U.S.: www.aecf.org

United Friends of the Children, founded in 1979, provides support services to more than 2,000 current and former foster youth in Los Angeles County each year, working to provide them with the opportunity to finish high school, find housing, attend college and build the skills to support themselves.:   www.unitedfriends.org

GANGS AND RACISM

ADOLESCENT SERVICES - Gangs: Awareness, Prevention, Intevention:  www.focusas.com/Gangs.html. 

STREET GANGS -- The information on this web site is useful for parents, educators, and at-risk youth in understanding how the geography of gangs has had a major impact on the residents of Los Angeles and the surrounding communities. It has a variety of information about gangs and gang culture: www.streetgangs.com

STEREOTYPES - Top ten gang stereotypes and what research has to say about them: www.gangresearch.net/GangResearch/Seminars/stereotypes/TopTen.html

A lengthy article on racism in the United States appears in Wikipedia.  The article contains a note that “the neutrality of this articles is disputed” and a link to the “talk page” showing many suggestions for changes.  www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_the_United_States

Contact: Victoria McKinney, 310-631-8458 or skywriter2u@joimail.com