By Jennifer Trotter
Guiding Harbor CEO
Foster Care doesn’t have a season. I get calls and emails every day about kids needing a foster placement. One day recently, I was contacted about SIX different children between the ages of 9 -17 needing a foster home. Children enter the foster care system at any time throughout the year, requiring consistent availability of foster families. The holidays are a busy time of year but imagine not having a place to celebrate and people to celebrate with.
There are approximately 10,000 kids in Michigan’s foster care system. Foster care is a temporary living situation for children whose parents cannot take care of them. The Court makes the ultimate decision about whether a child is removed and then the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services places that child with an agency like Guiding Harbor. We provide support services to the birth family, and we work with the relative or foster family where the child is living.
Becoming a foster parent isn’t for everyone, but anyone can find a way to help. Volunteer at an event, conduct a New Coat Drive and donate the coats to Guiding Harbor, or make a recurring monthly donation through our Giving From the Heart program.
Guiding Harbor works with kids in foster care ages birth to 21. We have a variety of programs to address their needs. Youth in foster care have experienced trauma. Research shows that trauma can alter the way a brain operates. Trauma can cause symptoms such as anxiety, depression, avoidance of emotions, and can skew perceptions of reality. Kids may develop negative behaviors that get their needs met, but these behaviors can be problematic. Some children need more intensive support than a foster family can provide.
At our Girlstown Residential program, staff are available 24/7 to guide youth and help them heal from their trauma. The program is highly structured and teaches effective coping skills, appropriate boundaries, communication skills, among other skills that help youth heal. Girlstown is the oldest and most well-known program that Guiding Harbor offers, successfully serving over 1,500 adolescent females since inception. We are committed to providing youth with the same life experiences as their peers. Our residents attend public schools and can get jobs in the area, which assists in cultivating relationships within the Belleville community.
Your impact can be made now or later. Sponsor a youth to attend her prom, donate to her high school graduation party. Sponsor a holiday meal or a trip for the residents to go to the movies. Leave a legacy gift, this involves arranging charitable donations during your lifetime or as part of your estate planning.
When kids can’t safely return home in a reasonable amount of time, the Court can terminate the rights of parents. This makes the child legally free for adoption. Typically, those children are adopted by the foster parent or relative that has been providing care for them. There are approximately 300 children in Michigan who do not have an identified adoptive family. Children and families are matched based on the family’s ability to best meet the needs of the child.
Help us paint or do other beautification efforts because kids in foster care deserve to come to a place that is warm and welcoming. Donate school supplies, toiletries, or gift cards. Grant wishes from the Amazon Wishlist on our website.
As kids in foster care get older there are fewer foster homes willing to take in teens who have experienced trauma. Typical adolescent impulsivity, testing of limits, pressure to fit in amongst peers are behaviors that mischaracterize foster youth as troublemakers, defiant, and angry. This results in the youth experiencing placement changes and losing valuable time to learn critical life skills that will aid them in adulthood.
Guiding Harbor’s work in Independent Living programs enables youth in foster care to make significant progress to overcome the challenge and achieve improvement in their well-being. Teaching life skills to these foster youth is the priority. When kids exit the system without critical life skills we see significantly higher rates of homelessness, substance use, incarceration rates, and early parenthood, than we do of their peers that have appropriate support.
Partner with us to provide work experience, mentorship, and life skills to teens aging out of foster care. Help older youth with financial literacy, cooking, car maintenance, or applying for college.
Guiding Harbor offers a variety of programs to meet the needs of children and their families during their time in foster care. Outcomes for kids in Foster Care are improved when we can reduce the number of changes they have to endure. Having services from one agency is much better than hopping around from place to place.
A youth in our Independent Living program told me that he didn’t think anybody cared about him or what happened to him. I brought him to our annual fundraiser in November where he agreed we could tell his story. The room of 150 supporters erupted in applause and standing ovations for all he had endured. As he shared his dream of making music professionally, supporters began donating the cost for his time in a recording studio. This gesture left him nearly speechless. I assured him that evening that he has a community full of people pulling for him and his success, that we believe in him.
I know the Belleville community believes in these kids. You have shown us your commitment over the past 66 years. Thank you for all you have done for the children of Guiding Harbor. Thank you for allowing me to share the history of our story for the past few months on the pages of this paper. I can’t wait to see what we can do together to continue to support the kids who need it most.
For more information about Guiding Harbor please visit guidingharbor.org and follow our Facebook page for ways you can stay informed.