Pictured are Optimist Club President David Kafitz and Miranda Creech, who received a copy of the Optimist Creed.
By Rick Abercrombie
The August 14 speaker at the St. Andrews Optimist Club breakfast meeting was Miranda Creech.The speaker is the Director of Family Engagement and Support for Growing Hope, an organization that supports Foster parenting locally. Ms. Creech brings with her 10 years’ experience in the Child Welfare field.
Creech described the need for fostering children, then outlined the stages of the process, which are:
A) Identifying at-risk situations where a child desperately needs stability in a family environment. Assuring compatibility with the family (“matches that matter.”)
B) Preparation of the fostering family, the foster child, and the necessary requirements of the physical house in which the child will be placed.Described by Creech as “more than a bed.”
Every two years, there is a home re-inspection as a form of a facilities audit.
C) Counseling with the child to assure he or she knows what to expect.
D) “The First Night”: the time when, for the child, there is a settling into the new home. This time is sometimes frightening, uncertain, and unfamiliar.
E) Settling the child into a routine he or she can depend on. The assurance of support and nurturing. This step, which is certainly not instantaneous, might be establishing a morning routine; help with homework; dinner around the table; encouragement after a long day; recognition of birthdays and accomplishments.
The child begins to form new relationships, attempt new hobbies, and form a vision of what life will be like, minus a crisis; forming a hopeful future.
Growing Hope comes alongside the fostering family with support, such as: first night bags, clothing and personal items, introducing the child to camps and extracurricular activities, etc. Creech’s term for that approach was “not just placement.”
Creech stated that once a fostering family has housed its first child, Growing Hope’s job then becomes maintaining contact and collaboration with that family in hopes that it will foster again. Children eventually age out of the program, so even if their stay is relatively long-term, it does have an ending date. An asset to encouraging another fostering opportunity is the fact that the home has already conformed to the facility requirements.
