Well, we just returned from our first visit and I feel like I should report back to blogworld
Went well. We were there almost three hours. Three of the guys from our sons "cottage" were able to spend the whole three hours with us.
i learned lots of interesting things from them -- actually talked more to them than I did with our son -- but that was because he was so busy reconnecting with his siblings that he hadn't seen for a while.
I don't know how much of what they told me I want to post, but I think this one thing will be enough for tonight.
We met an almost 15 year old caucasion kid who I will call Jack. He is witty, articulate, and really seems to know himself fairly well. In order to complete the program, you have to have 300 achievement points. Jack has 450. However, there are no foster homes that will take teenage boys.
Most recently he found out from his social worker that there were 15 new licensed homes in the city where the ranch is. BUT only 3 of them will take kids over 12 and the three that have will ask for girls. So he continues to do well, waiting and hoping for someone to get licensed so he can live in a family setting once again.
I don't even know what my concusions are about the system, and boys in care, and residential treatment centers, but I'm finding out some interesting pieces of the puzzle. Seems I get more confused about it every day.
Bottom line? People willing to let teens live with them, either as foster parents or adoptive parents, are few and far between and these kids desperately need someone!
I know, I sound like a broken record......but if 75 percent of kids who age out of the system end up dead, incarcerated or homeless in 10 years, we HAVE to do something....
I don't always agree with everything she says, but I agree with a portion of Rosies point on this blog.
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