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Kids For Success

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Recently I read an article in the San Diego Union Tribune entitled "Setting Up Foster Kids for Success" by Assemblyman Brian Maienschein. The article focused on helping foster kids succeed. The article points to statistics that show around half of foster kids who stay in the system until they age out wind up in dire straights - homeless, in prison, or victimized in some way. Some even wind up dead.

The article points to the idea that both placement services and providing support to adoptive families can help turn these statistics around.

Supportive Services

Proving foster and adoptive parents with supportive services can help enhance the chances of a successful placement. These services should include support both for the foster child and the foster parent. …show more content…

Find what the child loves and help him learn to focus on it and excel.
That spirit that makes a child want to succeed is something that is built over time. Many foster children feel uncertain or their self esteem may have suffered at the hands of an abusive parent or caregiver. It is only through consistent praise and encouragement that a child will begin to overcome these setbacks and learn to seek success on his or her own.

Think about the times in your own life when you've been successful at something and it made you want to try harder. How can you repeat these types of experiences in you foster child's life? For example, if you see that your foster child is adept at drawing cartoons, but is a bit clumsy, point her to an art class and not a soccer team.

By finding the strengths the child in your care has and accentuating those strengths, the child will slowly build the esteem to succeed on his her own. After all, isn't that the end goal in foster care? To create a child who can stand on his or her own two feet and not repeat the mistakes of his biological

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