Guiding Harbor to host Family Picnic for community

By Jennifer Trotter
Guiding Harbor is hosting a Family Picnic at Girlstown Residential, 11875 Quirk Rd., on Saturday, Aug. 17, from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. We open the residence to the public annually and provide tours of the home.
Foster and adoptive families, staff and their families, and members of the community come together at the Family Picnic to eat, celebrate, enjoy crafts, games, and fellowship. Backpacks and supplies are provided to our foster children in preparation for the school year to come. This free event is a great opportunity for you to see the work being done in your community.
We are very proud of the work being done at Guiding Harbor with Michigan’s foster children and their families. People often remark that the work we do must be so sad. While it is sad that parents and children experience hardships, it is also very rewarding to support families as they overcome challenges and find success. The foster care system is imperfect, but we have seen vast improvements over time.
The earliest form of orphanages in the U.S. were created in the 1700s. They were established to care not only for children whose parents died, but also children from families who were unable to care for them due to poverty or addiction. As a result of the population boom, influx of immigrants, and widespread poverty, orphanages often were overcrowded, understaffed, and lacked resources for proper care. While orphanages were better for the children than the streets, they still could not provide what every child needed and deserved—a family environment in which they could grow and thrive.
From the 1850s – 1930s thousands of orphaned, abandoned, or homeless children were placed on trains and sent from Eastern cities, primarily New York, to rural areas in the Midwest and other regions for adoption or foster care. This was known as the “Orphan Train.” The primary goal was to relocate these children to rural families where they could have a better chance at a stable and productive life. The belief was that rural families could offer a more wholesome environment compared to the crowded and often impoverished conditions of city orphanages. The orphan trains moved approximately 200,000 children over the years. While many of these children found loving and supportive homes, the experience was mixed. Some faced hardships, including being separated from siblings or facing challenges in adapting to new environments.
Beginning in 1860, boarding schools for Native children were established to assimilate the children into White American society by requiring children to ignore their languages, customs, and beliefs often under the threat of physical punishment and even torture. U.S. Native children were forcibly removed from their homes, families and communities. They were taken to boarding schools throughout the U.S. Many children never returned home.
During the early to mid-20th Century, orphanages were overcrowded and in poor condition. There was a lack of individual attention given to the children and their needs were not being met. White children and Black children were placed in separate orphanages. The conditions for Black children were even more abhorrent than for their White counterparts. There was inconsistent care and a high potential for abuse.
Thanks to reformers pushing for change, by the 1950s we saw an end to most orphanages in the U.S. This is the time in which Girlstown was opened in Belleville with the vision for a rehabilitative program not a soulless institution. In the 1960s, foster care had become a government-funded program.
Prevention programs emerged in the 1970s to help children from entering foster care. U.S. Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) to protect the best interests of children and promote the stability and security of Indian Tribes and Native families.
African American children were, and continue to be, disproportionately represented in the foster care system. The Fleming Rule, a legal principle in the U.S., focused on the best interests of the child but resulted in greater surveillance of poor families, where poverty was at times misrepresented as “neglect.” The foster care system sometimes failed to provide equitable resources and support for African American families, which impacted their ability to retain custody of their children or successfully navigate the system.
While the origins of foster care have garnered mistrust of the system, the recent decades have given way to significant system reform. There are many more resources available for birth families, foster families, relatives and agencies. Strict oversight and regulation, as well as better training for professionals and foster parents, has resulted in improved child safety. Advances in science and a better understanding of human behavior, better positions us to promote healing from trauma, substance use, and mental illness. Even with all these improvements, stigma and misconceptions about foster care leave the community with questions and uncertainty.
Currently in Michigan, there are around 10,000 children in foster care. Most children enter foster care due to reasons of neglect. More than half of the children in care will return home to their parent(s). Approximately 1,600 children last year were adopted from foster care and 1,300 young people “age out” of the system each year.
Guiding Harbor began providing Foster Care case management in 1989 and has served hundreds of children. While the uncertainty of the child welfare system is imbedded into societal opinions, Guiding Harbor strives to change the narrative about foster care. We leverage the small size of our agency to guarantee individualized experience for those we serve. We practice ethical and transparent service delivery to create more positive outcomes for children. We are committed to inclusivity and creating space for all children and families to thrive.
Next month, I will share more specifically about the variety of services we offer at Guiding Harbor and what we are doing for children in care. If you’d like to read more about Guiding Harbor’s Mission and Values, please visit: http://guidingharbor.org