Because Kids Are Worth It !

Have you ever wondered what happens to children who have been removed from their families?  Well, my friend Jake Terpstra from Michigan has written a comprehensive book about that very subject.

A bit about Jake....graduate from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan and the University of Michigan, where he received a Master's degree in Social Work.  His career of more than a half century, began as a child welfare caseworker in a rural area for the Michigan department of Public Welfare, now the Department of Human Services.  Then he administered the Washtenaw County Juvenile Detention Home and following that, a private residential treatment program for children.  He next went to the Lansing central office of the state agency and administered the program for the licensing child welfare services in Michigan.  After his statewide experience, Mr. Terpstra was appointed by the U.S. Children's Bureau as a national specialist in state licensing of child welfare services.  With government downsizing , he was asked to also serve as the government specialist for group care of children and for family foster care.  These responsibilities included establishing and monitoring federal grants in those specialty areas and monitoring the grants.  His responsibilities also were open ended, responding to child welfare administrators throughout the country, to provide training, consultation or assistance with conference planning.  Sometimes consultation included legislators.  He initiated the National Association of State Foster Care Managers and edited a national newsletter on state licensing.  During this time, he wrote many articles on subjects he believed had not been adequately addressed.  After retirement he served on two agency boards of directors, county and state child welfare committees, a foster care review board and continued to provide consultation.  His experience began as a caseworker, then moved to administrative positions with statewide and national responsibility that included contacts with thousands of people working in child welfare throughout this country and also in other countries.  He recognized that at all levels the core values of child welfare services are basic even though different methods are required.  His writing this book is an attempt to share those experiences and observations with anyone interested in child welfare service, about what it is and what it could be. 

 The title is "Because Kids Are Worth It!"   It is available on Amazon.  It is inexpensive and very informative.

  More children enter the child welfare system annually now than were placed in the 75 years that the orphan trains operated!!! 

In Minnesota a state and federal study was done from 2005-2010 titled the Minnesota Permanency Demonstration Project.  This study had about 1,200 kids in Minnesota foster care homes.  When the kids were placed in permanent homes, half of the kids families received the same financial stipend as the foster care home got.  The other half of the kids permanent family got only half of that amount.  (this is typical in a permanent placement.)   When a person adopts a child in the foster care system, they are given only half the money to raise that child.  Now this just doesn't make sense and actually lessens the chances of that child staying in that home dramatically.  The results of the study that tracked the difference the extra stipend mattered, showed overwhelmingly that the kids with the financial disparity leveled, succeeded in school, community, college jobs, staying out of crime much more than did the kids whose families received only half.   Think about it.  Why on earth, would the system have been set up this way.  If our desire is to get as many children that are considered difficult to place, into permanency, then ending the financial disparities is required.   Urge your legislators to fully fund permanent, "forever homes" for every child.   This is a collective social responsibility, one that should not have to be shouldered by a single individual or couple.  The costs to society will be much less in the long run if we just change this disparity.