Last Sunday night, a segment of 60 minutes caught my interest. The comment above was part of a story line about a new service at a local childrens’ group home, Five Acres, called, “Family Finders.” I am familiar with Five Acres as I spent several years involved with a group that helps children in foster homes, including Five Acres.

“They told us that she would be adopted, and so we should stop calling.”

“Family Finders” is a new program instigated recently to help find family members for the most troubled young people living at the home. Most of the children who reside at the home have had multiple foster family placements, and some are very troubled children. The aim of “Family Finders” is to locate family members for the most severely impacted children. They aim to find one or more family member(s) for a child to connect or reconnect with in hopes that this will be of benefit to the child.

One of the men who began this program discussed how important it is for children to know their roots and their children, and to know that some member of their family cares for them. I was very moved by his acknowledgement of the significance of family ties.

This segment highlighted three different young teens living at Five Acres who had some significant issues and how finding family members for them was of some benefit to them. One young lady, T. had been taken from her birth mother at 10 months of age for neglect. She is now 15 years old and has been bouncing around in foster care since leaving the care of her mother.

Over 40 family members were located for her including her birth mother. Her birth mother is now a parent to three other young children, and T. will shortly be joining them in her birth mother’s home. Not only have they located her birth mother, but they are closely working with her and other willing family members to insure that T. will not return to the foster care system.

The quote that began this article was the response of a family member when asked why they had not kept in touch with T. They were told by a social worker to stop calling to inquire after her as she was to be adopted. Apparently T. grew up in foster care thinking no one in her family cared about her. Now she knows differently, and hopefully it will make a difference in her life.

Family Finders also found the birth father of a brother and sister at Five Acres. I will relate their story in an upcoming post.