State’s foster care system to undergo new initiative

The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services is implementing a new initiative in the state’s foster care system called Faith in Families.

DCFS Secretary Suzy Sonnier said the goal is to safely reduce the number of children in the state’s foster care program and decrease the amount of time children spend in the system. It also is geared toward helping every child find a permanent connection before they leave the foster system.

The Times reports Faith in Families seeks to reduce the number of children in Louisiana’s foster care program by 25 percent by 2015.

“By 2015, we want 85 percent of our children to exit foster care within 24 months of entering either through reintegration with family or adoption,” Sonnier said when she unveiled the program Thursday in Shreveport. “We want to meet the national standard of 75.2 percent of children being reunited with their family within 12 months.”

Sonnier shared a story of a young woman who aged out of the foster system at 18, nearly a decade ago. She is now a well-adjusted and fully employed adult; however, the woman still regrets that she never was able to make a family connection.

“The one thing she said meant the most to her was if she could have been adopted,” said Sonnier. “Here she was 27, had a wonderful career in front of her and no one to share it with. When she got a promotion, she had no one to call.”

Louisiana has 706 children ages 15 to 17 in foster care. Over the next three years, many of them will age out of the system, leaving them with no recourse to find work or a place to live.

“I hate to say it. But unless they were in a very good foster home when they aged out who allows them to come back and be a family source for them, then they are just out there on the street,” said Kelli Todd, program director of Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children. “They don’t know how to fill out college applications, they always call our office to help them get their birth certificate or Social Security card, they don’t have the resources they need.”

The Faith in Families initiative will be phased into the foster program over three years, from now until 2015.